AMERICAN missionary Lane Michael White on Wednesday asked the Pasay City regional trial court to dismiss the illegal possession of ammunition case filed against him, claiming he was only a victim of the bullet-planting [locally called, tanim-bala] syndicate at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport last month.
In a hearing presided by Judge Pedro Gutierrez of the Pasay City RTC Branch 119, White’s lawyer Ernesto Arellano said airport security personnel Maria Elma Cena and Marvin Garcia scanned the baggage of White on the x-ray machine several times until they found a .22 cal. ammunition from its pocket.
“Garcia brought the baggage to the x-ray machine and found a bullet after he [rummaged through the luggage using his] bare hands,” he said.
Arellano said it was impossible for his client to pass through Florida’s Jacksonville Airport if he had a bullet inside his baggage.
The lawyer said they filed a nine-page motion before the court armed with a video footage taken by White’s relative showing Garcia was seen putting his hand inside the baggage instead of using an inspection stick.
The court ordered Cena and Garcia 10 days to comment on the motion filed by White.
Arellano said they are considering filing an administrative case against SPO2 Rolando Clarin of the PNP Aviation Security Group who allegedly asked P30,000 from White in exchange for his release.
Reports showed that White, who was traveling to Coron, Palawan, was taken to the Office of the Transport Security, where he said someone asked for P30,000 to “make the case go away,” but he refused.
Arellano said White was a theology graduate from Florida who was in the country looking for a new church site as part of their missionary outreach program.
He said his client had no experience in shooting and did not own a gun or bullets.
Despite the public outrage spurred by the bullet-planting scandal, OTS chief Rolando Recomono insisted that was no syndicate at the airport although 65 OTS personnel had already been dismissed since 2012.
Recomono said the dismissed employees were acting on their own after Avsegroup-Metro Manila chief Senior Supt. Ricardo Layug Jr. was also relieved last week amid the controversy. He was replaced by former Las Pinas City police commander Senior Supt. Adolfo Samala.
Avsegroup director Chief Supt. Pablo Francis Balagtas did not explain why Layug was replaced but he said the move was just part of the “rotation process” of the Philippine National Police under the leadership of its director Ricardo Marquez.
He also clarified that Layug’s relief doesn’t necessarily mean he is involved in the alleged extortion and other irregularities happening at the airport terminals.
Four senators – Miriam Defensor Santiago, Nancy Binay, Ralph Recto and Alan Peter Cayetano – have already called for an investigation of the scheme.
Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya also insisted that there is no syndicate at the Naia and reports about planting bullets in the luggage of passengers have been blown out of proportion.
But initial probe conducted by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation, who also stepped into the case upon the directive of the Department of Justice, said there is indeed a syndicate doing the modus.
While the investigation is ongoing, Recomono appealed to the public not to “demonize” all Naia security officials and personnel.
Last month, two other Avsegroup personnel – Careen De Padua and Rommel Ballesteros – were relieved from their post after the bullet in the investigation report on the case of an overseas Filipino worker did not match with the one presented before the Pasay City prosecutors office.
The two police officers were the ones who handled the case of 56-year-old Gloria Ortinez, who was placed under airport police custody, for allegedly bringing a bullet at the airport. Ortinez was about to take a connecting flight from Laoag Airport to Hong Kong on Oct. 25 when she was apprehended.
Based on records collated from various airports nationwide, 1,214 cases of passengers caught with bullets listed in 2012 and increased in 2013 with 2,184. The figure declined in 2014 with 1,813 cases and continue to drop this year with 1, 394.