THREE more passengers were caught carrying bullets inside their bags at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, officials said Tuesday, but the charges against two of them were dismissed and the third was ordered released from detention.
Filipino worker Marc Angelo Unida, 27, was about to board his flight to San Francisco at 8:26 p.m. on Nov. 20 when authorities found a bullet inside his bag.
Another passenger, Josephine Agbayani, 52, was arrested Monday morning after a bullet was found inside her shoulder bag.
On the same day, Gerald Ubarde, 25, was a departing for Macau around 4:40 p.m. when she was arrested for having a .40-caliber bullet inside his pouch bag.
But Pasay City prosecutors dismissed the charges filed by the Aviation Security Group against Agbayani and Ubarde for lack of probable cause, while Unida was ordered released from detention pending further investigation of his case.
Airport officials made their report even as Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. deplored Malacañang’s attempt to belittle the alleged existence of bullet-planting syndicates preying mostly on elderly passengers and Filipino workers.
“It is unfortunate that instead of trying to get into the bottom of these allegations, the President instead chose to dismiss these outright with statistics and even defended the airport authorities,” Marcos said.
“The reports affirm that many victims of the “tanim-bala” scheme opt to just pay up to avoid inconvenience.”
Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez warned passengers to be wary of extortionists at the airport despite Aquino’s downplaying of the bullet-planting scam there.
Two weeks ago, city prosecutors dismissed the case of Hong Kong-bound Filipino worker Gloria Ortinez who was detained for two days after a bullet was supposedly found in her handbag last month.
Two airport officials were also relieved after the bullet in the investigation report on Ortinez’s case did not match the one presented before the prosecutors office.
Reports showed that Ortinez was about to take a connecting flight from Laoag Airport to Hong Kong on Oct. 25 when she was arrested.
Lawyer Spocky Farolan said Ortinez didn’t own the bullet and that his client was a victim of the scam at the airport.
The lawyer of American missionary Lane Michael White is also hoping the Pasay City regional trial court will dismiss the case against him after he was allegedly caught in possession of a bullet at the airport two months ago.