THE Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA), the government agency running Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia), denied reports that a man recently arrested for running a so-called “sex-for-flight” scheme was one of its employees.
In a statement on Friday, the MIAA said the suspect, 29-year-old Benedict Larcibal, was a safety officer of Aviation Operations and Management Specialists Inc., a ground handling company that serves some airlines, including Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways.
“Ground handling services are directly outsourced by the airlines themselves,’’ the agency said. “Airport management has no administrative hold over employees of ground handlers.”
Larcibal was arrested in an entrapment operation by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation in a Pasay City motel with his intended victim, a woman who needed to go to Singapore.
According to the woman’s allegations, Larcibal claimed to be an immigration officer and offered to help solve problems with her travel documents in exchange for sex and P35,000.
MIAA said Larcibal’s access pass to the airport had been revoked and his name had been included in Naia’s “stop-list order” barring him from the complex. Kristine Felisse Mangunay
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