Two Cents Worth

This is my two cents worth of supposition regarding the "laglag bala" scam, this scheme of implanting bullets on passengers' luggage and hand-carried bags by airport personnel at the international airports of the Philippines..........

This scam I think began many years back, when x-ray personnel at the airport realized that there was a great deal of charm practice in the Philippines. Filipinos like to insert used empty bullet shells inside the bag or carry them as pendant, some kind of amulet called anting ating. These people who put them inside their bags, oftenly, after a long period of time forgot about the existence of that tiny metal possession. Because of airport restriction regarding ammunition, the personnel discovered that they can easily terrorize and extort money from departing passengers who carried them. So a modus operation began! And until one day their greed could not be satiated, that they resorted to implanting previous confiscated bullets into the side pockets of unaware passengers' luggage and bags. This is such an easy scheme, as they could clearly see from the x-ray machine whom to victimize: You know those bringing plenty of cash and/or those easy preys on connecting flights and helpless workers and travellers, etc., aside of course from those people who really absentmindedly possessed them.

I tell you, when St. Martha School was still operational, one Edil Fitir gun firing morning, two bullets from the sky dropped into the school rooftop, punctured the galvanized roofing and fell on the floor without hurting anybody. A teacher advised me to keep the spent bullets to ward off from bad incidents. So I kept them and put them inside my drawer. Luckily I have no penchant of carrying them around as good luck charms. And yes, the bullets are still in my study room to this day.

I will also tell you, that in some recent travels, I was more than once asked by some airport guys in uniform at Naia 2 for some "pangkape". I pretended not to understand them by turning on my blank stupid stares. What a shame!!! Thieves and uniformed mendicants at manila airports!!! You don't feel safe in your own country.