Her shoulder bag was among other passenger luggage, all sealed in plastic, that went on Sunday through the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) terminals’ x-ray scanners.
Following reports of “tanim-bala” or “laglag-bala” incidents at the country’s premier airport, flyers have gone to lengths of sealing their luggage in cellophane or plastic and adding more padlocks.
The Singapore-bound Nimfa Fontamillas, of Cavite City, was at the NAIA terminal 1 at around 6 a.m. Sunday for her Tiger Airways flight when her shoulder bag went through the final screening x-ray scanner manned by Department of Transportation and Communications- Office for Transportation Security (DOTC-OTS) personnel.
Her shoulder bag was flagged after DOTC-OTS security screening officers detected what resembled a bullet inside. Fontamillas refused to have her bag opened and inspected unless there were witnesses, including her lawyer.
At around 12 noon, Fontamillas’ lawyer Clint Estandarte arrived and opened her shoulder bag, which was sealed by a combination lock and had its outside pocket zipper stitched together.
Initially, all the contents of the bag were taken out and revealed no contraband. But when the apparently empty bag was run through the x-ray scanner, what appeared to be a bullet was still displayed on the monitor.
When the stitches on the zipper were removed and unzipped by Estandarte, the outside pocket yielded a 9mm bullet.
The elderly woman was aghast and insisted that she would never bring a bullet while her lawyer, who opened the bag, was rendered speechless. She said that she could not have possibly brought a bullet when she and her family did not have guns.