K-9 disaster now a howling success

NEW MOM Jazz, a bomb-sniffing dog who gave birth to five puppies, poses with her handler at Butuan-Bancasi Airport in Agusan de lNorte province. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

WHAT started out as a disaster for a Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) official turned out to be a howling success four years later.

A CAAP area manager, Evangeline Daba, recalled the horror she felt when she learned that her bomb-sniffing dog, Jazz, had gotten pregnant while kept in an airport storage one stormy night.

“I did not know Jazz was in heat at the time and that another dog had gotten to her. I was furious,” Daba said of the dog’s overnight stay at  Surigao Airport. Because of the storm and floods, the dog’s handler, Jojo Cubillo,  could not take Jazz home as was his usual practice.

Three months later, Jazz gave birth not only to five puppies, but also to what would later become a K-9 unit for the Caraga region in Mindanao. The team of bomb-sniffing and illegal drugs-detecting dogs has since been assigned to other airports and has helped guard sundry town events in Surigao del Norte province.

 ‘Last dog’

Daba recounted that she took in the Labrador, whom she later named Jazz for “just dog,” because she loves dogs. “I had a dog once that I named Douglas because he was my ‘last dog,’” she added.

The CAAP area manager spent her own money to have Jazz trained and tapped Cubillo, a former member of the police K-9 unit, to be the dog’s handler in 2012.

“Jazz immediately learned to ride on motorcycles,” Daba said of the dog that Cubillo always took home with him. But a typhoon and rising floodwaters broke this routine, as Jazz’s trainer could not risk getting her wet and cold.

When Jazz whelped five hybrid puppies, Daba hit on the idea of coming up with a K-9 unit for the airport.

“One of the puppies died but the surviving puppies—Alpha, Arson, Access and Lea—I decided to put into training to detect bombs and illegal drugs,” the CAAP official said.

Daba hired K-9 handlers who were trained and exposed to K-9 procedures from the United States and from the country’s military force, and eventually had a barracks built for the unit at the Surigao Airport complex.

She also sought the services of a local veterinarian, Oriel Echavez, to check on the dogs regularly.

 13 dogs

Eventually, local government units (LGUs) in Surigao del Norte started asking for the K-9 unit to help with security concerns during big events in town.

Soon, the LGUs started donating more members to the K-9 unit: pure-bred Labradors, Retrievers, even a Beagle. To that, Daba added a malnourished Belgian Malinois she had adopted and nursed back to health.

“We now have 13 dogs in our K-9, with 10 ready for deployment. Three are still undergoing training,” Daba said.

She said the K-9 unit had been deployed in CAAP-controlled airports in Caraga—Surigao Airport, Tandag Airport in Surigao del Sur province, Butuan-Bancasi Airport in Agusan del Norte province and Siargao Airport in Surigao del Norte.

 ‘Proper training’

While LGUs and the Armed Forces of the Philippines have acknowledged the skills and capability of the K-9 unit, the Philippine National Police has refused to accredit the dogs.

A former ranking police official had wanted to take the dogs away for “proper training” by US-trained experts, Daba said. She adamantly refused, she said, despite his claims that only the PNP has the authority to organize a K-9 unit.

“I told him I did not want anybody else to take care of the dogs. They needed their handlers who have already bonded with them,” Daba said.

She also told the police general that the CAAP had full authority over the security of its controlled airports under Republic Act No. 9497, or the Civil Aviation Authority Act of 2008.

“The dogs will only be left in a pitiful state if handled by people who do not really care about them,” she said.