SPEAKER Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez said on Sunday the recent incident of stealing from a Thai tourist at Manila airport by erring personnel of the Office for Transportation Security (OTS) is very embarrassing and alarming.
Romualdez said he asked for a meeting this week at the House of Representatives with officials of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to discuss the incident at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), which has become a national embarrassment.
“Nakakahiya at nakakagalit,” Romualdez said angrily. “Paano tayo makakahikayat ng mga turista sa ating bansa kung mga magnanakaw ang ilang mga nagbabantay sa airport natin.”
“Attracting tourists should be a priority, and an incident such as this does not help us in encouraging visitors to our country,” Romualdez added.
The Speaker said he would recommend to DOTr Sec. Jaime Bautista the replacement of all OTS personnel at the airport with honest and professional ones.
Nevertheless, Romualdez proposed that DoTR should just allow OTS personnel with impeccable or good records to re-apply for their posts.
“It sounds a bit extreme, but circumstances call for extreme measures. If government personnel commits criminal acts against foreign visitors, the minute they landed at the airport, it says a lot about our country. So, it needs to be addressed sternly,” he said.
When re-applying, Romualdez said, qualifications of OTS personnel should be subjected to the highest standards of public service and, if necessary, subject them to a lie detector test and re-training as new recruits.
