We laud the non-renewal of the ground-handling services contract between the Manila International Airport Authority and MIASCOR Aviation Services.
It’s a decisive move that should send a strong message to anyone who dare violate the belongings of travelers.
This is not the first time we’ve heard of pilferage. Sometimes they happen to passengers’ luggages, like this recent incident at the Clark International Airport that got the President’s ire.
Not even wives of foreign dignitaries are spared.
Sometimes they happen to balikbayan boxes containing goods lovingly saved for by Filipinos working abroad and sent to their families here.
We do not think any private company or even a government agency would willfully make it a policy to tamper with other people’s belongings. But the fact that their employees do – and get away with it – betrays an incompetence that must not be tolerated.
With this move came instructions from the Transportation Department on baggage handlers: No more uniforms with pockets, no more loose shoes, no more cell phones while on duty.
Body cameras will be the norm.
Remember too the bullet-planting practice that became rampant two years ago.
It is saddening that we must now operate from this mindset of suspicion, but experience has proven us none the wiser.
Pilferage at our gates are an embarrassment—what would the international community say about Filipinos in general?
More than the esteem of foreigners, however, what is at stake is our opinion of ourselves. Bad eggs must not be tolerated, and eggs must be daunted from turning bad in the first place.