Philippine Presidential Aspirant To Make Airport Bullet Scammers Swallow Bullets
Philippine presidential aspirant Rodrigo Duterte promised to make airport scammers who plant bullets in passenger bags going through security check and extort money from the owners, swallow the planted bullets. The 70-year-old mayor of Davao City who confirmed his candidacy for president in his weekly television show Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa (from the masses to the masses) aired on Sunday, November 22, 2015, is gunning for airport crooks.
According to Philstar, the anti-crime mayor who has finally given in to public clamor that he go for the Philippine presidential post, is unforgiving toward corrupt authority-figures who prey on innocent civilians. The reluctant aspirant for the top post of the land, minced no words in issuing this warning to perpetrators.
“I don’t have the ambition to become the president, but if I am the president, I will let you swallow those bullets even if it means death.”
Rappler reports that the Aviation Security Group operating out of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, has recorded 30 cases of bullet-based extortion at the airport from January to early November 2015. Among the victims are a 65-year-old Filipino grandmother, a 20-year-old American missionary, a 33-year-old Japanese tourist, and a teenage South Korean choir member.
Going a step farther, Philippine presidential aspirant Duterte has offered his services as a lawyer to the overseas Filipino workers (O.F.W.) frequently targeted by scam artists. His offer comes in the wake of online buzz calling for a class action suit by victims entitled to redress for their mental anguish and aggravation. O.F.W.’s have been widely supportive of Duterte’s bid for the presidency, and during his period of hesitancy about running, this viral Instagram from a weeping Minda Obeidat working in Qatar, may have helped him decide.
Rappler published statistics suggesting that this Philippine scam has been going on for years. Twenty-one cases were reported in 2013, the number dropping to 12 cases in 2014, then showing an uptick in 2015 with 30 cases reported from January through early November. Every presidential aspirant in Congress seems to have taken notice, based on indignant noises from policymakers preparing for the upcoming elections.
While this uniquely Philippine problem has brought in a prosecutor by presidential mandate to speed up cases at the airport and investigate suspected scammers, the victim turned aspirant-for-justice is still in limbo. The crime has already been committed, and those who have allowed the travesty to happen under their watch, are technically accountable. A class action suit seems to be in order for all victims entitled to redress for mental anguish and monetary loss.
Duterte has given the onus to Philippine President Benigno Aquino III to do something about the bullet scam problem that will not go away. Davao’s presidential aspirant Mayor Duterte released the following statement to the press.
“I never asked any favor from him in the past, but now I am asking him do something.”
On October 30, the Philippine bullet scam problem landed on presidential aspirant Duterte’s home turf. According to Sunstar, Augusto Dorde Dagan, 60, project engineer for a water treatment facility providing the Davao City Water District’s potable water, was arrested at Davao International Airport for two bullets found in his luggage. Weighing in on the matter, Mayor Duterte said he suspects the bullets planted in Manila and ordered an investigation while D.C.W.D. arranged Dagan’s bail of P120,000.
Philippine presidential aspirant Duterte is exploring the possibility that a syndicate is at work in cahoots with airport employees and even Manila police. The following is a translation of what he said in Cebuano to would-be scammers planning to expand their operation to Davao.
“That’s why we have so much trouble here now…if it’s here in Davao then I will kill you. If I become president then you will be finished.”
[Photo by Getty Images]
