Another bullet found; Abaya suggests Naia flyers open bags

Another bullet was discovered in the suitcase of a 64-year-old American woman at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport
(Naia) Terminal 1, the police said Thursday.

A report reaching the Philippine National Police-Aviation Security Group (PNP-Avsegroup) said the .22-cal. bullet was discovered by a baggage inspector who manually checked Gemma Kauffman’s suitcase at the airport terminal’s final security checkpoint on Tuesday morning.

The report said the inspector did this in the presence of Kauffman—who was set to leave for Taipei, Taiwan, via EVA Air—after the image of what appeared to be a bullet appeared on the monitor of an X-ray machine.

“The woman admitted it was hers but said it was only an amulet. It was like a necklace,” Chief Supt. Pablo Francisco Balagtas, head of the PNP-Avsegroup, said over the phone.

According to Balagtas, authorities confiscated the item, and allowed Kauffman to board her flight.

“The bullet did not have any gunpowder unlike White’s,” Balagtas said, referring to the bullet authorities at Naia Terminal 4 claimed they found in Lane Michael White’s suitcase on Sept. 17.

White, a departing American missionary, denied the bullet was his and claimed that it was a frame-up.

According to him, he refused to pay the P30,000 allegedly demanded by several Office for Transportation Security (OTS) personnel assigned to the airport, leading to his arrest and detention.

White was subsequently charged with violating the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act.

His case and that of a wheelchair-bound balikbayan who claimed that she gave P500 to OTS personnel who accused her of carrying two .22-cal. bullets in her bag led to allegations that some airport personnel were planting bullets in the luggage of passengers to extort money from them.

This prompted Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya to suggest that passengers at airports may be asked to open their luggage themselves to prevent the alleged planting of bullets by security personnel.

Abaya said the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) would not tolerate any wrongdoing among its personnel, adding that those involved in the recent incidents were immediately relieved and subjected to an investigation.

“If proven to be guilty, we will… terminate and file the necessary charges. But if proven not guilty, it’s but normal to honor their rights as nonguilty citizens,” he told reporters at the Senate on Thursday.

Abaya said the DOTC had also been reviewing its procedures following the complaints.

“Maybe it would be good to adopt that the passengers themselves open their luggage instead of our personnel,” he added.

According to him, the DOTC would be procuring more closed-circuit TV cameras to monitor developments at the airport and minimize similar incidents.