Bite the bullet

How does a live bullet find its way into the bag of a traveler?

Are there that many clueless air travelers in the Philippines who didn't know that they shouldn't have live bullets with them while transiting through airports, or is there really a syndicate of extortionists that plant bullets in the bags of unsuspecting travelers in our airports in order to threaten them with prosecution and jail time if they don't “cooperate”?

The recent reports of multiple “Tanim Bala” incidents have been a source of worry, paranoia and frustration for many Filipinos. What makes it easy for us to believe that the allegations of wrong doing among the airport and security officials who would be involved in such a scam is the general state of the airport and the many rackets that we all know are allowed to take place in a facility that is widely considered as a prime candidate to be one of the worst of its kind in the world.

If you come to think of it, most of us would be incredulous if we were told that such a scam exists in a world class and well-managed airport like Singapore's Changi or Hong Kong International Airport but we find it easy to believe when we are told that this “Tanim or Laglag Bala” scam is said to be an institution at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Why is this so?

I believe that the bullet planting issue that has caught the imagination of Filipino social media by storm is merely a symptom of a much bigger problem within our airports and transportation hubs. We don't trust the security personnel because we don't trust the customs and immigrations people who have been allowed by airport management to become so powerful and scary that a simple “Merry Christmas” from them is already considered as an act of extortion that has to be given in to by the thousands of Filipinos passing through the airport.

Scams by customs and immigration personnel who find the smallest faults in the travel documents or requirements of travelers, not because they want to do their job properly, but because they want to rattle their targets enough to make the gullible ones pay to avoid the hassle, are already well known among Filipinos. That makes this bullet planting scheme look like the attempt of the airport security people to get a piece of the lucrative extortion pie and because nothing significant has really been done in our airports to get rid of those types of behaviors by the different cliques within the facility, we find it very easy to believe that such a scam exists and that it threatens us and our loved ones the moment we step into a Filipino airport.

What makes it worse for us is the nonchalant attitude of airport and government officials towards the mounting outrage. Instead of acting quickly and decisively to assure the traveling public that such incidents will be dealt with immediately, they peddle excuses, insist that their facilities and employees aren't involved, and that the incidents are isolated cases when simple policies could've been changed to prevent it from being repeated or the heads of the airport officials involved could've been made to roll.

If laglag bala syndicates do exist, I don't see how they are so difficult to stop. Instituting a set of protocols for cases of bullets being discovered in belongings should protect both the security personnel and the passenger. The proper documentation and handling of evidence, along with a special area for inspections that is completely covered with working CCTV's could go a long way in making it difficult for the extortionists to operate and for the airport management to weed out the bad apples.

Aside from making it difficult for extortionists to operate, I don't see why airport officials cannot update the policy to be more considerate towards travelers found with bullets, especially if the quantity of the bullets (1-2 pieces) isn't worrisome enough and there are no actual firearms found with the bullets. It boggles the mind why airport and transportation officials aren't falling all over themselves to fix this problem that is quickly turning into a public relations and political nightmare for the administration. Is the leadership of the DOTC really as incompetent as its failures with the country's airports and train systems make it seem?

I'd really love to see the Aquino administration come up with a solution to this problem that shouldn't have been allowed to become this big. But, at the same time, the political season also makes me wonder that if the extortionists do exist and operate, they must be pretty stupid to continue their racket even with all the exposure and attention. Are they really that greedy that they can't even lie low until the attention dies down, or is a certain group intent on feeding the flames that have the potential of discrediting a rival group if the issue is allowed to go out of control?

At this point it doesn't really matter if the “Tanim Bala” scam is legit or a product of a political operation because it has already captured the attention and the imagination of the public. The question is whether or not PNoy's boys are capable of recognizing and solving this problem expeditiously and definitively.*

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