The Laglag Bala Chronicles: 4 more caught at NAIA, 3 say bullets are ‘charms’


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Has the nation’s most famous airport turned into a factory of bullets? Because, really, how can you explain the fact that despite the “laglag bala” issue being a hot topic these days, they keep catching people carrying bullets.

In fact, on Nov 3, four people were caught carrying bullets at NAIA: one elderly male and three women. However, while the man said he was a “laglag bala” victim, the three women were said to have owned up to carrying the bullets as “anting-anting” or charms/amulets.

At this point, we don’t know what the heck to believe. But here’s the strange story, anyway.

On Tuesday, 77-year-old Santiago Peñaflorida, a Filipino-American bound for Los Angeles, was stopped around 6 p.m. at the initial security screening of Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2 after personnel of the Department of Transportation and Communications-Office for Transportation Security saw on the X-ray monitor what looked like a bullet inside his locked backpack,” reports Jeannette I. Andrade in Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Peñaflorida’s daughter, who had accompanied him, “went into hysterics and accused the DOTC-OTS personnel of planting the bullet in the bag.” The report indicated that they “refused to open and have the backpack examined until after members of the media arrived.”

When the bag was finally opened, it yielded a .32-cal. bullet. Peñaflorida was invited for questioning at the Aviation Security Group-NCR headquarters. Peñaflorida’s daughter said that the ammunition found in her father’s bag had probably been been planted. She added that “if his luggage had indeed contained the bullet, it would not have been cleared at the Iloilo airport where they had just flown in.”

However, the Peñaflorida case wasn’t the only bullet related incident that day. The three other incidents all involved women who admitted that they carried the bullets because they were considered anting-anting or charms/amulets to ward off bad luck: 

1. At around 9am, Bacolod-bound passenger Marilou Rose Espinola, 27, was stopped by members of the Avsegroup at NAIA Terminal 3. A bullet of still- undetermined caliber was seen  in her carry-on bag when it passed through the X-ray scanner at the departure area’s Gate 2. The report said that “Espinola admitted finding the bullet and placing it inside her bag, saying she did not know it was prohibited at the airport.”

2. That same afternoon, Rowena Otic, 33, of Nueva Ecija province, who was sending off her Dubai-bound sibling, was intercepted at Terminal 3 for carrying two .38-cal. bullets, which she had placed in a red pouch. She later told reporters she always carried the bullets as they were her “protection.” She claimed she forgot to take them out of her handbag, saying, “I also thought only passengers’ bags were inspected.”
 
3. Two hours after Otic was intercepted, Milagrosa Cadiente, 48, was stopped at the same Gate 6 of Terminal 3 for having a 9 mm-cal. bullet in her wallet. Cadiente, who said she was there to fetch her employer who had come from Japan, supposedly said that lawmakers “should amend the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act.” She stated, “It is just stupid to put people in jail for one or two bullets. They have to understand that Filipinos carry them as charms.”

Photo: WikiCommons



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