The Department of Transportation – Office for Transportation Security (OTS) said it has released from duty and suspended its personnel shown in a viral video showing them supposedly stealing from a Thai tourist passing through a security check at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
Investigators are now preparing to submit criminal complaints against the security personnel and will ask for the cooperation of the foreign national, the OTS said.
The OTS further said that the OTS personnel “shall not only be dismissed from the service but shall also be put behind bars for their criminal acts that tarnish the reputation and integrity not only of OTS but the entire country in general.”
Last Wednesday, Thai national Piyawat Gunlayaprasit posted a video showing security personnel stealing cash from the wallet of another Thai tourist, Kitja Thabthim, before the waller went into an x-ray machine at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. The video has gone viral.
“I saw the Philippine officer doing it secretly and took a photo. It turns out that she put the money that she had stolen from a Thai brother to put it in the pocket of a short-haired officer,” Gunlayaprasit said in a Facebook post.
When they complained about the lost money, the said officer told them to reach out to the central office since no CCTV cameras were set up in the area.
— Ronald Espartinez