MANILA, Philippines — According to Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista, a total of 19 employees of the Office for Transportation Security (OTS), an attached agency of the Department of Transportation (DOTr), have been sacked since July 2022 after they were discovered stealing from airline passengers.
During the Senate’s discussion on the DOTr’s P214 billion budget request for 2024, Bautista stated on Tuesday, “Actually, we have examined 60 cases [of theft] at the airports [using OTS employees.
These incidents included the one that happened on September 8 at Ninoy Aquino International Airport, where a surveillance camera caught an OTS screener purportedly swallowing $300 in banknotes that she allegedly took from a Chinese visitor.
The widely shared video was just another embarrassment for the nation’s primary international entry point, which has already received criticism for having one of the worst airports in the world from a vacation rental management company.
