Two rookies of the airport police force were wounded when one claimed to have accidentally set off the gun he was cleaning inside their quarters on Sunday afternoon at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
With one of the members of the Airport Police Department (APD) treated for three wounds and the other for two, the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) is trying to establish how one bullet caused so much harm.
Insisting that the gun firing was an accident, MIAA officials said that the multiple wounds were most likely caused by a ricocheting bullet.
MIAA assistant general manager for security and emergency services Jesus Gordon Descanzo said that 22-year-old airport police officer 1 (APO1) Edcel Biag, owner of the 9mm pistol, which allegedly went off accidentally, has been suspended and his service firearm confiscated pending the investigation against him.
According to Descanzo, Biag is facing an administrative case of negligence and a possible case of illegal discharge of firearm.
In a report from the APD based at the NAIA Terminal 2, where the two wounded security personnel have been assigned, the accident happened at around 2 p.m. Sunday inside the APD locker room.
Biag claimed that he was cleaning his 9mm service firearm when it accidentally went off and hit the thigh of his 22-year-old colleague, APO1 Wally Barongrong.
NAIA terminal 2 medical officer-on-duty Dr. Patria Pacquing said Barongrong had “3 wounds noted on the mid-anterior (front) aspect of the left thigh.” She also found a superficial wound on his left palm.
Biag, she said, “sustained superficial blast injuries (burns) on his left thigh and left hand.”
Both men were brought to the San Juan de Dios Hospital for treatment and were released immediately after.
With only one bullet casing recovered at the site of the gunfire, David de Castro, spokesperson to MIAA general manager Jose Angel Honrado, said that the multiple injuries sustained by Barongrong could have resulted from a bullet ricochet.
De Castro said that as a result of the accident, Biag has been relieved from his post and has been required to undergo a seminar on gun safety and responsible ownership.
It was learned that a person has to be a graduate of a four-year course, be civil service eligible, and undergo two months of training in the airport basic course, which includes an aviation security module.
The APD personnel involved in the accident joined the airport security force in 2014 and were both initially assigned with the NAIA terminal 1 before they were transferred to their current detail.