4 airports to get scanners that can detect concealed cash, drugs, explosives

Ninoy Aquino International Airport.  INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Eight new scanners that can detect concealed cash, drugs, and explosives under a passenger’s clothing and even underneath the skin are set to be installed in major airports in the country by the end of the year ahead of the Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit to be held in Manila in 2015.

The devices called passive millimeter wave scanners will undergo product testing before these are deployed to at least four major airports in the country, according to Roberto Villanueva, deputy administrator of the Office for Transportation Security (OTS), an attached agency of the Department of Transportation and Communications.

The Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 and 3, Mactan-Cebu International Airport, and Francisco Bangoy International Airport in Davao City will each get two of these devices.

Airport security personnel have been relying on X-ray scanners and stop-and-frisk measures to detect any contrabands like excess cash, illegal drugs, and explosives on passengers.  They have also been using profiling techniques to thwart any attempts to sneak out these items outside the country, Villanueva said.

The transport security official said that with the state-of-the-art equipment, airport personnel could see from the silhouette of passengers on their computer screen any of the prohibited items.

“It would be easier for our personnel to check on incoming passengers using this reliable equipment,” he said adding that the agency would want to install the new devices by the end of the year before the Apec Summit in Manila in 2015.

Each of the scanner has been projected to cost P6 million each, according to Villanueva.

These scanners use a millimeter wave imaging enabling energy to pass through the passengers’ clothing giving the security personnel an idea if the person has illegal items with him or her.