We thought the Ninoy Aquino International Airport could not get any more notorious, and that every development would be an improvement from its sorry state.
It has been named the worst in the world. Roads leading to it are perpetually plagued with oppressive traffic jams. Flying, while it has become more affordable for Filipinos, has turned out to be a stressful experience for passengers not because of what happens when they are airborne but because of the glitches they encounter before they board or after they disembark.
In this airport, the only law that seems to apply is Murphy’s—whatever could go wrong most likely will.
We were mistaken. We overestimated the capacity and underestimated the shamelessness of the Transportation and Communications headed by Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya and the Manila International Airport Authority headed by Mr. Angel Honrado to fix existing problems and prevent new ones from cropping up.
Overseas Filipino workers, and local and foreign tourists, regular travelers and even foreign visitors are up in arms against what is now known as the laglag-bala scheme. Under this scheme, airport security officials plant bullets in the luggage of travellers. They would then arrest the owner of the bags and then extort money from them as they plead for their freedom and insist on their innocence.
An overseas worker living in Hong Kong has started an online petition calling on Senators Grace Poe and Miriam Defensor Santiago, both of whom are running for president, to investigate the matter.
More Filipinos are due to come home for the Christmas season but many of them are wary lest they fall victim to the same cruel scheme.
The scheme, too, puts the country in a bad light before the international community. Foreign tourists and investors, whom we painstakingly entice to come here through our “It’s more fun in the Philippines” campaign, would be disheartened and suspicious, like Filipinos —despite the fact that only a few unscrupulous airport officials are in it—were setting them up for a trap.
We have had enough of our incompetent transport officials who, instead of shaping up or admitting their failure altogether, continue to mutter lame excuses for bungling their jobs. Some airport officers have been sacked, but should that be all?
We are familiar with Abaya’s justifications, of course, of his failure to fix the public transport system—the situation of which is not fatal, he believes. As for Honrado, he should have long been gone from the job, period.
There are now photos of travelers who have wrapped their luggage with tape to prevent airport officials from slipping bullets into the pockets. There are advisories from lawyers on how those accused of possessing bullets should conduct and defend themselves. There has been coverage in prominent international media organizations, like TIME Magazine and BBC. Yes, it has come to this.
We share the nation’s outrage over this scheme and the desire to determine who these security officials who make us so insecure are.
We would also call for the resignation of the officials under whose watch these things happen—if we did not know so well that the concept of delicadeza was alien to them.
