OTS personnel find bullet in grandma’s luggage

MANILA, Philippines – An 85-year-old grandmother bound for Canada was allowed to leave even after authorities found a bullet in her luggage.

Officials said Crisencia Pabustan, a balikbayan and native of Pampanga, was allowed to board her flight to Canada yesterday even after personnel from the Office of Transportation Security (OTS) manning the initial X-ray found a bullet in her check-in luggage.

OTS security screening officer Bryan Rivera said they allowed Pabustan to leave for humanitarian considerations.

Pabustan, accompanied by her son and daughter, were held after the X-ray monitor showed a .45 caliber bullet in her luggage.

OTS team leader Buenvenido Ross said he asked the daughter, Priscilla Pabustan Velasco, to remove the bullet from her mother’s luggage.

Velasco became hysterical. “I myself packed the luggage, how will a bullet end up there?” she asked.

The son, Anthony Pabustan, remarked, “Is there some sort of magic going on at the airport?”

Ross said the OTS called on the airport police, a representative from the airline and someone from the Public Attorney’s Office to conduct the inspection.

“We wanted to help the old woman because at her age she will never put a bullet in her own luggage, but her daughter become tactless as she even threatened to publish in newspaper in Canada,” Ross said.

Airport police Insp. Rey Dooc retrieved the bullet and declared it was an amulet.