{"id":65508,"date":"2015-11-24T06:25:51","date_gmt":"2015-11-24T12:25:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=65508"},"modified":"2015-11-25T21:10:14","modified_gmt":"2015-11-26T03:10:14","slug":"aquino-downplays-tanim-bala-scam-wants-proof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/11\/24\/aquino-downplays-tanim-bala-scam-wants-proof\/","title":{"rendered":"Aquino downplays \u2018tanim-bala\u2019 scam, wants proof"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"President<\/a>
President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III delivers his speech during the arrival ceremony at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 2 in Pasay City on Sunday (Nov 23, 2015) after attending the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Leaders in attending the 26th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi, Malaysia. (Photo by Joseph Vidal\/Malaca\u00f1ang Photo Bureau)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA \u2013\u00a0With the \u2018tanim<\/em>–bala<\/em>\u2019 (bullet-planting) modus operandi at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) making headlines, President Benigno \u201cNoynoy\u201d Aquino III asserted that there was a possibility no such extortion scheme actually existed.<\/p>\n

Just like Transportation Secretary Joseph Abaya who dismissed the small number of passengers\u2019 arrest from the total number of travelers, Aquino also downplayed the controversy.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many people pass through the NAIA per year? The figure is 34 million. How many of those were involved in a bullet case? What they reported out of the 34 million is 1,200 incidents,\u201d he said in a press conference over the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cMedyo ang liit naman yata (That [number] seems quite small),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The President then disclosed a case where three passengers claimed allegedly falling victims of the modus, and airport personnel trying to extort money from them to dismiss charges after a bullet or two were found in their baggage.<\/p>\n

Among the alleged victims, one eventually admitted that the bullet found in his bad was his.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the report that three out of three million is true, how can we say there is an epidemic \u2013 that there is a high probability you will get into trouble or that you can say there is a chance you will fall victim to the racket?,\u201d Aquino asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to balance it. In the end [we need] proof. Is there proof that will confirm or deny the tanim<\/em>–bala<\/em> scam?,\u201d he added, noting that the issue was also biased against the innocent airport staff.<\/p>\n

Not entirely claiming that the airport scheme did not exist, the Malaca\u00f1ang has then been looking into all data and evidences regarding the issue before acknowledging the existence of the modus operandi.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s identify the problem correctly so that we can identify also the solutions correctly… These are assumptions we need to validate. That\u2019s why we need to look at all the assumption that have been put out,\u201d Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said.<\/p>\n

Lacierda also stressed that a thorough investigation on each case and validation on each instance was ongoing as Aquino wanted to \u2018cast a wide net\u2019 and \u2018look at the entire picture.\u2019<\/p>\n

The Presidential spokesperson, however, denied that the government was \u2018detached\u2019 from the issue and that the President was \u2018not concerned\u2019 over the matter. He clarified that they only wanted to \u2018verify and validate all assumptions that have been put out in the media.\u2019<\/p>\n

Lacierda then assured the public that the Aquino administration will address the alleged \u2018tanim-bala\u2019 scheme and carry out necessary measures.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA \u2013\u00a0With the \u2018tanim–bala\u2019 (bullet-planting) modus operandi at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) making headlines, President Benigno \u201cNoynoy\u201d Aquino …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":65509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[249],"class_list":["post-65508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-rewrite","mauthors-cyra-moraleda","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}