Passenger claims being victimized by 鈥榯anim-bala鈥�
Passengers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia). —Inquirer file photo/Grig C. Montegrande
MANILA, Philippines — Is an old harassment scheme making a comeback in an airport under new management?
A 69-year-old woman has accused security personnel at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Terminal 3 of trying to victimize her through the “tanim-bala” (planting a bullet) modus which she said almost made her miss her flight to Vietnam.
In a Facebook post on Saturday, Ruth Adel said she and her family were already at the boarding gate on March 6 when personnel of the Department of Transportation’s Office of Transport Security (DOTr-OTS) approached her and said an “anting-anting” (amulet) had been found in her luggage.
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Adel said she asked what an amulet was and a security officer, “while laughing,” said that X-ray scanners had detected a bullet shell in her baggage.
According to Adel, she thought she was being “pranked” because the security officer made the allegation “very casually.” When she denied it and asked that her luggage be inspected on the spot, the security personnel said she must come with them.
Adel and her family, however, refused because the boarding for their flight had already started and they did not want to be left behind.
The OTS personnel said they would call their supervisor who, upon arriving, said the shell was in Adel’s handbag, not her luggage. They also showed her a photo of the X-ray scan supposedly showing the bullet shell.
‘Shaken’ by incident
“But my bag did not have keys like the ones in the photo they were showing me. I was already confused because what they were saying was not consistent,” she said.
“I have not even seen a bullet in real life, so it’s impossible that the supposed contraband was mine,” she added.
Adel said that when a search of her bag did not yield the shell, “they turned their backs on us because we were taking a video of the incident. They said it was prohibited to video them but what they were doing is also prohibited.”
She claimed the security officers covered their name tags “as if what I felt didn’t matter and they were not inconveniencing people.”
Adel said she told them she would report them for trying to victimize her through the “tanim-bala” scheme.
“To be honest, this is the first time I have felt so belittled. I am already 69 years old, and whatever happened to me, I am sure they would not be held liable for it. My nerves were severely shaken and my blood pressure went up after the incident. Even now, I still have nightmares about what happened to me,” she said in her post.
“I honestly thought the system here had changed,” Adel said, adding that she wanted to make sure authorities would conduct an investigation because “I don’t want them to victimize anyone else.”
“They didn’t even apologize for the inconvenience and trouble they caused me. If they don’t learn their lesson, these officers will continue to take advantage of others,” she said.
Duterte order
The Inquirer contacted the New Naia Corp., the private consortium which took over the operations and maintenance of Naia in September last year, and the DOTr, but they had yet to respond as of this writing.
Bullet-planting at Naia was first reported in 2012 and gained notoriety in the latter years of the administration of the late President Benigno Aquino III.
It is basically an extortion scheme as victims claimed that, in exchange for not being charged with illegal possession of ammunition, they were forced to give money to airport security officials.
In 2016, Aquino’s successor, Rodrigo Duterte, gave “strict instructions” to the DOTr that bullets found from passengers be “simply confiscated and recorded,” with the passenger concerned “allowed to continue with [his or her] flight without any undue delay.”
But in March last year, a bullet was supposedly found at Naia in the luggage of a Thailand-bound woman who was traveling with her companion.
The OTS management at that time maintained that the bullet was owned by the passenger who denied it was hers.
