NAIA Bullet Planting Scam (Tanim Bala) Philippine Senate Hearing

Thursday (November 12) the first Senate hearing on the NAIA Bullet Planting Scam (Tanim Bala) that is rampant in Manila airport NAIA was held and Senators are disappointed that airport officials and airport security are not coordinating about the problem.

Resource speaker in attendance are victims 20-year-old missionary Lane Michael White, his father and his stepmother. Lane's stepmother took a cellphone video on what have transpired in the x-ray , she said that it Lane's bag was scanned multiple times with no bullets but when the x-ray personnel place his hands inside the suitcase then re-scanned it, a .22 calibre bullet was seen inside Mr White’s suitcase, which leads to his detainment and interrogation. The cellphone video was filmed on September 17.

The stepmother of an American tourist detained in the Philippines has put forward supposed video evidence showing airport officials allegedly planting a bullet in his luggage. The stepmother said that the airport police are suggesting her to delete the video and just admit the bullet was from his stepson.

Senator Teofisto Guingona III said that there is a failure of the system, since officials are pointing fingers when the Senator asked about a CCTV footage showing a bullet being found in the luggage of American missionary Lane Michael White. It seems the officials don't want the scam to be exposed to the public.

Honrado said the footage was with the OTS. Remono, however, said the footage was not within OTS jurisdiction. Honrado later admitted that MIAA was responsible for operating the CCTVs and they had the original footage.

Guingona had the tapes subpoenaed.

Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. questioned Honrado on why he did not look into the case of overseas Filipino worker (OFW) Gloria Ortinez. Honrado replied and said that he had no control over the police Aviation Security Group and the OTS saying his job entailed simply coordination and discussion of issues.

It seems that this problem is not going away soon since officials are protecting the syndicate that is behind this scam.