PNP clashes with MIAA, BI on human smuggling at NAIA

Officials of the Philippine National Police Aviation Security Group (PNP-ASG) insisted yesterday that human smuggling occurred on Feb. 13 at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) involving foreign nationals aboard a chartered aircraft, even as other agencies maintained the flight was aboveboard.

Col. Rhoderick Campo, chief of the PNP-ASG for the National Capital Region, told the Senate Blue Ribbon committee that the private aircraft, apparently carrying one to two undocumented foreigners out of the eight or nine passengers listed on the manifest, was allowed to take off without the required inspection by his personnel.

Campo, however, admitted that the inspection could not be done even with the presence of the PNP-ASG just outside the aircraft as the ground handler informed them that the flight was still waiting for one more passenger.

He said by the time the last passenger arrived and was processed by immigration, quarantine and customs officials, the aircraft doors were immediately closed and the PNP-ASG personnel could no longer inspect it.

“If the (aircraft) door is closed, is it already considered in flight,” Campo told the committee chaired by Sen. Francis Tolentino.

The probe was prompted by the privilege speech of Sen. Grace Poe on the incident last week.

PNP-ASG personnel were deployed to the general aviation area of the NAIA after receiving information about an attempt to smuggle passengers out of the country earlier in the day.

Campo said one of his men took videos and at one point it recorded two persons apparently slipping into the aircraft.

Since the aircraft doors were already shut, Campo said he tried to stop the flight by calling Dionisio Robles, acting chief of the Intelligence and Security Division of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAAP).

Robles testified that CAAP has no jurisdiction as the aircraft was still on the tarmac and therefore the responsibility of the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA).

Still, he relayed Campo’s concern to his MIAA counterpart, Manuel Gonzales.

Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Norman Tansingco said there was nothing irregular in the on-site processing of the passengers for the chartered flight, adding the additional passenger whose name was handwritten on the clearance form was still vetted for derogatory record and Interpol records.

BI officer Glenn Ivan Juvan, who was the one who processed the passengers, said he had to wait for the clearance from their office before stamping on the passport of the additional passenger.

The inquiry was not able to take up Poe’s query on an unidentified BI officer who was also on the tarmac and apparently assisting the immigration process.

MIAA general manager Cesar Chiong said there appeared to be no irregularities, except that there may be lapses in security procedures to screen vehicles entering the tarmac carrying general aviation passengers, particularly checking their plate numbers.

Poe said more questions surfaced that need explanation into the alleged human smuggling incident.

She said private air charter companies and local aircraft ground handlers, such as Globan Aviation Services Corporation, the one involved in the incident, should vet their passengers included in the flight.

Poe also observed the difference in the clearance forms of the PNP and the MIAA to that of the BI.

“Why are there multiple versions of each document? They come with mismatched information, handwritten insertions and signatures from various personalities,” she said.