Not just passengers, ‘welcome party’ also yields bullet at Naia
THREE people at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) were arrested for carrying bullets in their bags, but were released on Tuesday after the Pasay City prosecutors who handled the complaints saw no criminal intent on their part.
They included a woman who was not even an airline passenger but was only at Naia to welcome an arriving relative.
The Aviation Security Group (Avsegroup)-National Capital Region identified the arrested persons as airline passengers Marc Angelo Unida and Gerald Udarbe, and Josephine Agbayani.
The US-bound Unida, 27, was arrested Friday night after a 9-mm bullet was found in the wallet he placed in his sling bag. The contraband was discovered at the final security screening checkpoint of Naia’s Terminal 2.
The 27-year-old Udarbe, meanwhile, was arrested Monday night when a .40-caliber bullet was found in a black medicine pouch inside his backpack. He was prevented from boarding his flight to China after the bullet was detected by the x-ray scanner at Terminal 3.
Agbayani, 52, entered Terminal 3 Monday afternoon to fetch her relative when a rifle bullet was spotted in her shoulder bag as it went through the x-ray scanner.
The city prosecutor’s office found no “evil” or “malevolent” purpose for the bullets carried by Agbayani and Udarbe, but recommended that Unida’s case undergo further investigation due to the absence of a ballistics report in the complaint.
On Agbayani’s case, assistant city prosecutor Joahna Gabatino-Lim noted that the woman, during inquest proceedings, insisted she was keeping the bullet as a talisman to “drive away evil spirits”—thus making it “a harmless possession.”
Assistant city prosecutor Teresa Purzuelo, who handled Udarbe’s case, said “there is no logical reason why respondent would possess a single bullet with criminal intent to use it, except that he kept it as an amulet with benign intent to ward off evil spirits or as a good luck charm, an acknowledged Filipino custom especially among old folk.’’
