The resumption of NAIAA scandals

While the Philippine government has just opened its gates and encouraged foreign tourists to visit the country after the tragic pandemic experience, the latest shameful incident at NAIAA will give the latter an ugly image of our country.

Every month this year there has been a major blunder in our airport. Inevitably, these humiliating incidents are known worldwide as social media nowadays is very active.

The first one was on the very first day of this year, January 1, when NAIAA’s air traffic control equipment shut down, causing the cancellation of thousands of flights and creating a security nightmare at the airport.

The second humiliating incident was the stealing of money by the airport security personnel from a Thai tourist --which was caught on camera. A fellow Thai tourist took videos of the incident and posted them on Facebook last February 22.

The incident happened during the security screening at NAIAA Terminal 2. The video showed a long-haired airport security personnel inserting something into the jacket pocket of a fellow short-haired security personnel. Then a male voice of somebody was heard looking for his money.

An additional video clip showed the security personnel returning the money to the tourist with the voice begging for that video to be deleted. According to reports, the money is 20 thousand yen or equivalent to around ?8,000.

The head of the Office of Transport Security said four personnel were involved in the incident. They have already been identified. They are now under investigation and were placed under preventive suspension.

In fairness to the management, it issued a statement that said, “these illegal acts will not be tolerated, and we will apply the full force of the law to penalize the perpetrators.” The tourist who posted the incident on social media said he did it because he did not want to see more victims.

The third recent incident was on Wednesday, March 1, when a Chinese tourist reported losing his watch at the airport while undergoing security screening. Upon review of the CCTV, it was found that an airport security officer named Valeriano Recaplaza Jr. was the one who stole the watch.

The CCTV recorded Valeriano when he took the watch from a tray where the personal belongings of the Chinese tourist were placed to go through the screening machine. His fellow security personnel arrested him after the latter watched the whole CCTV footage.

These scary incidents are the irony of the government’s campaign to open our gates to foreign tourists. Tourists are afraid to experience the same or even worse scenarios.

The traumatic "tanim-bala" scandal is still fresh in the people's memory in this country and abroad. Now the scandals at the airport are back in different forms. Were they the same people who temporarily stopped during President Rodrigo Duterte's administration? Are they new airport employees who could afford to make such kind of anomalies despite their newness to the job? What triggered them to be fearless and do so?

I hope President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will take drastic action to stop these humiliating scandals totally. How can we recover from the devastating effects of the pandemic if foreign investors and tourists are afraid to come to the country?