Escudero questions the role of OTS and MIAA in bullet planting scam

Sen. Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero (Chiz Escudero’s Facebook page)

MANILA, PHILIPPINES – Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero wants to clarify the exact roles of the Office for Transportation Security (OTS) and the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) after they pointed fingers on the bullet planting scam in the country’s airports.

Escudero wants the OTS to explain the memorandum they issued recently that will create an “airport security organization in each airport serving civil aviation.”

The memo issued on Sept. 2 by OTS chief Roland Recomono states that the airport authority (MIAA and OTS) should create an “airport security authority” that will be responsible for “coordinating the implementation of security controls and procedures at each airport.

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The airport authority, according to the memo, was created to provide assistance to the airport security in each airport and to “establish and implement an airport security program.”

“If the OTS is the single authority responsible for transportation security, then what is the role of the MIAA and all these other security authorities whose creation is mandated by the new memo?

“So many authorities and committees and organizations are involved in airport security, but at the end of the day, when something goes wrong, no one claims responsibility. Just look at the people surrounding the ‘tanim-bala’ victims,” Escudero said in a report by Maila Ager of Philippine Daily Inquirer.

MIAA General Manager Jose Angel Honrado admitted on last week’s Senate hearing that he was out of the loop in the “tanim-bala” cases, and had no control over other agencies in the airport.

The OTS was created by the virtue of Executive Order 311, designating it as “the single authority responsible for the security of the transportation systems of the country, and are also in charge of security screening of passengers, baggage, and cargoes, and hiring, retention, training, and testing of security screening personnel.”

The recent memo from OTS, an office under the Department of Transportation and Communications only “muddles the responsibilities for airport security” according to Escudero.

He added that OTS should explain the memo they released and should give a clear picture of who is responsible for what in the airports, and to identify each agency’s role and get rid of redundant functions.

“The government is spending some P10 billion to host this major trade meeting and project the strength of the Philippine economy; we can’t possibly let a few bullets finding their way into random bags ruin the good image we’re building here,” he said in a report by Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Escudero added that The MIAA and OTS should know by this time what each agency’s role in airport security, so that all will know who to look for when problems arise.