AT least 25 Office for Transportation Security (OTS) personnel were suspended in August by the Manila International Airport Authority (Miaa) for various offenses.
The Miaa did not reveal the names of the suspended personnel but said the employees are under investigation and their security access passes were canceled, preventing them entry to the airport.
Technically, we did not suspend them as screening officers, according to Miaa Spokesman David de Castro. “We [only] canceled their access passes pending investigation for various offenses.”
The suspended employees are under investigation for reported extortion and various offenses, such as the laglag-bala scam and pilferage.
Meanwhile, more than 7,000 Filipinos all over the world reacted to the statement of a Filipina domestic helper in Hong Kong when she posted on her Facebook account that she also fell victim to extortion at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Terminal 2.
The overseas Filipino worker (OFW) chose to remain anonymous but identified herself as a member of the group calling itself the United OFWs Worldwide.
The unidentified OFW said she was at Gate 5 of the Naia 2 on May 26 on the way back to Hong Kong when a female screener rummage through her bag after it was run through an x-ray machine.
“That fat lady whose hair is tied up called me and opened my bag,” the OFW said in Filipino, adding that the same airport staff rummaged inside her bag, opened her wallet and took HK$500.
“I refused when the lady said she wanted to keep the money because that’s my allowance in Hong Kong,” the OFW said on a Facebook post.
“She asked me to be quiet, returned HK$100 and left. I called out to her but she ignored me,” the OFW added.
“Sa sobrang inis ko, piniktyuran ko sya. Tapos nagalit ang mga kasama nya dahil bawal daw sila kuhaan ng picture. Maybe I am not her only victim,” the OFW said.
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Our international airport is not only substandard in amenities but also very low standard in efficiency and honesty of personnel. I was an OFW from 1981 to 2004 and in that time, more than 20 years, I did not see any improvement at MIA/NAIA to even approximate what I saw and experienced at Changi Singapore airport as if nobody among the country’s leaders set foot there.