NAIA tower siege: 2 killed

Police special weapons and tactics (SWAT) teams shot and killed former Air Transportation Office (ATO) chief Panfilo Villaruel and a former Navy commando after they seized the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA)-Terminal II control tower and held it for three hours before dawn yesterday.

Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) general manager Edgardo Manda said the two SWAT teams were dispatched to the tower after Villaruel and Navy Lt. (sg) Richard Gatchillar seized the tower armed with guns and explosives and claimed they wanted to expose government corruption.

MIAA assistant general manager for security and emergency services Angel Atutubo said the seizure of the tower was not a "terrorist act" but security forces had to make a judgment call on the situation because it could have endangered more lives.

Atutubo said the two men and their driver walked into the NAIA control tower using a security pass for unspecified research Villaruel was doing at the airport.

The tower was built when Villaruel, 60, was ATO chief during the administration of former President Fidel Ramos and he was very familiar with the airport and its personnel, he said.

Officials said Villaruel knew many of the control tower staff and gained access to the control room because they said they had with them a midnight snack for the six air traffic controllers at the tower’s 11th floor.

But once they were inside the control room, they brandished their caliber .45 and 9-mm, guns, a grenade and several explosives, forced the six controllers to leave and sent their driver home.

The air traffic controllers were identified as Rolly Pelayo, Loida Pilapil, Mamerto Olpindo, Hermogenes Aguinaldo, Ma. Fe Malte and John Carreon.

The two then barricaded themselves inside the air traffic control room and cut off electricity to the rest of the tower.

Incoming Philippine Airlines flight PR107 from Vancouver, Canada was diverted to the Mactan International Airport. PR107’s pilot was Villaruel’s son, Paul Michael, reported radio station dzBB.

Senior Superintendent Andres Caro, chief of the police Aviation Security Group (ASG), said it was already 1 a.m. when he received the report that Villaruel and the Navy officer seized the control room.

Caro said negotiations and a visit by current ATO chief Nilo Jatico were rebuffed by Villaruel.

Caro said he dispatched the SWAT teams because flight operations were about to start soon and decided to assault the control room at around 2:30 a.m.

The SWAT teams blasted the air control room’s locked steel door and Villaruel and Gatchillar were at the view deck when the policemen barged into the room.

Villaruel was then being interviewed by dzBB and he was heard shouting their surrender when the police opened fire, killing Villaruel and Gatchillar. Police forensic examiners said both men sustained multiple gunshot wounds in the head and body.

Hundreds of passengers waiting at the airport terminals were unaware of the incident but many were alarmed by the distant sound of gunfire.

Navy spokesman Cmdr. Geronimo Malabanan said Gatchillar, 38, dropped out of a Navy special forces training course and had been assigned to a group that provides security to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) headquarters.

AFP spokesman Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero said Gatchillar was charged in August last year with conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman and was on "floating" status. He was still undergoing court martial.

‘Isolated Incident’

In an official statement, President Arroyo played down concerns that the siege could be part of an attempt to undermine her government.

"I assure the people and the world that our airport is safe and sound," the President said in a statement.

"The nature, course and magnitude of this incident shows that it is not an attempt to take over the government. No unauthorized movements of troops have been detected as of this time anywhere in the country."

Lauding the action of the airport security forces, the President said "nothing will ever justify the taking over of an international control tower and prejudice the lives of our passengers."

"There can be absolutely no excuse to terrorize the public in this manner," Mrs. Arroyo said.

She dismissed fears that the siege was part of what she described last week as "opportunistic destabilization" but she also placed the military and police on "maximum alert" and ordered that checkpoints be set up around Metro Manila.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye praised the "fast and effective" response by authorities.

"This is just proof that the government remains in control of the situation and that’s the reason the reason for confidence in this government," the Associated Press quoted Bunye as saying, stressing that the siege was an "isolated incident."

Other government officials, including Manda, also echoed Bunye’s statement that the siege was an isolated incident although the situation could have involved several airborne aircraft and hundreds of passengers. — With Mike Frialde, Reuters, AP