Listen to him!

THE quotable DoTC Secretary Abaya is at it again. Listen to him telling the world that the “tanimbala” extortion scheme at the airport “has been blown out of proportion”!

What does he mean? That it’s “not fatal” to scare passengers out of their wits when they show up with luggage? That being detained for questioning and missing a flight for which the passenger has painstakingly prepared and paid is no big deal? That their fears are exaggerated when they could, like him, play it cool as help will come from an angel of DoTC or an Angel Honrado of the Manila International Airport Authority? That even the UN is overreacting to the panic?

At least the UN showed timely concern for their staff by warning them immediately about this latest shame and scandal to befall the airport named after the father of his boss.

Secretary Abaya, in contrast, took his time reacting after the first reports came out of the nightly tv news in September – a response that was too little, too late, and now too lame. What is it about this Cabinet secretary that he cannot understand the problems of the most ordinary, most hardworking people of this country? Not only does he lack sympathy and empathy, he’s just totally out of it! Nothing in his genetic makeup predisposes him to his role-playing as a servant of the people. His statements hurt his constituents, including the OFW heroes of the age of migrant labor whose massive numbers – more than 2,500 leave by plane every day – put them in the category of the most vulnerable.

DoTC records show that since 2012, a few thousand persons were caught, each with a bullet – one bullet each – at the airport. But because figures add up to only .008 percent of the total, the excuse is that those were nothing more than isolated incidents.

Maybe that’s Mr. Abaya’s problem. The man uses cold math to solve people problems. He could take a lesson from Public Attorney Percida Acosta, who rushed to the airport Wednesday night to rescue two bewildered, bedraggled, elderly passengers from a security virus that’s its own brand of terrorism.