Retired Judge Bares Another NAIA Scam
Omega watch mysteriously disappears after passing through X-ray scanner
by Liza T. Agoot
November 6, 2015
As the furor over the “tanim-bala” (bullet-planting) incidents at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) continues, a retired Cavite Regional Trial Court (RTC) judge revealed yesterday another scam that may give credence to the current airport scandal that has already caught international attention.
Retired RTC judge Manuel Mayo, who is currently in the United States, revealed in his Facebook account how his Omega wristwatch mysteriously disappeared from the pocket of his backpack after the bag passed through the NAIA x-ray scanner, only to resurface under similar mysterious circumstance when he vehemently protested the loss of the expensive wristwatch.
TERMINAL INSECURITY — A porter tends to empty luggage carts yesterday as passengers entering the departure area of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 develop a growing insecurity of having their bags handled by anyone else for fear of being victimized by the so-called ‘tanim-bala’ scheme. (Ali Vicoy)
It was a case of “now you see it, now you don’t,” Mayo lamented in his Facebook post.
This all happened on September 3, 2015, while Mayo and his wife had their luggage passed through the x-ray scanner at the NAIA for their trip to New York in the US.
In his Facebook account, Mayor posted: “It is the case of the bullet appearing in your hand carried bag (tanim-bala) and the wristwatch disappearing from my backpack after passing through the X-ray scanner. I find the elderly victims of the tanim-bala scam at NAIA to be credible witnesses and their accounts credible as well.”
Mayo, 69, recalled that on that fateful September 3, 2015, he arrived with his wife at the airport at about 12:45 p.m., hours earlier than their estimated time of departure (ETD).
“As is the usual and required procedure, you remove your belt, jacket, and shoes and place them in a tray. Take out the keys and coins from your pocket, the laptop from the bag and take off the wristwatch you are wearing. I did all these, except that instead of putting my watch into the tray, I placed it in the side pocket of my backpack which I could zip for security instead of being exposed in the open tray.”
“So into the X-ray machine did the tray, my hand carried bag on rollers, and backpack go and come out at the area after the scanner. No alarm went off. I am clear. After taking my shoes, jacket, laptop from the tray and bag and backpack off the trolley, I proceeded to the nearby seats. As I was lacing my belt and getting my watch, an Omega, it was no longer in the side pocket of the backpack where I placed it (for my convenience and safety),” Mayo recalled.
The former judge said he immediately went to the person manning the X-ray scanner and told him of the missing wristwatch.
The airport employee told the judge that the watch is in the backpack. In an effort to prove the wristwatch is in Mayo’s backpack, the airport scanner asked him to have the bag pass through the X-ray machine again for both of them to check.
As the backpack was passing through the X-ray machine, the airport scanner told Mayo to look at the monitor as he pointed at the outline of a wristwatch with a square face dial inside the bag.
“That is not the one I am missing. What is missing is one with a round dial because I had two other watches in the bag,” Mayo told the scanner.
The airport scanner advised Mayo to look for the missing wristwatch again, which the retired judge did by emptying the side pockets of his backpack but the expensive watch was nowhere found.
Sensing that the former judge was already losing his cool, the airport scanner suggested that they go to the central office where he could lodge a complaint, and he agreed.
The airport scanner then went to where the backpack was left and volunteered to check it, Mayo said.
“He (airport scanner) did rifle through the contents inside the backpack and, wonder of wonders, he found the watch and showed it to me. Milagro! (Miracle!) The watch, which had earlier vanished into thin air, had suddenly materialized in his hand!” Mayo said.
The retired judge said had he not checked-in earlier, he would not have the time to spare to go to the airport office to complain, and he would not likely have recovered the expensive wristwatch.
“I am willing to attest to the foregoing. If my watch could vanish in the manner it did then, it is totally possible and credible that a bullet could suddenly appear in your bag after it goes through that X-ray machine,” said Mayo.