This week, netizens were angered by the recent ‘tanim bala’ incident at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), especially because such incidents were often linked to the previous administration, that of Ninoy Aquino’s son, former President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.

Even before President Rodrigo Duterte took office, he vowed to make the ‘tanim bala’ perpetrators eat the bullets they ‘planted’ in the passengers’ luggage!

After this warning, the incidents of bullets found inside passengers’ luggage has certainly gone down and if there were any found, these no longer resulted in the passengers missing their flight because they were no longer detained. Instead, they were just asked to sign a logbook and ‘surrender’ the bullet found in their luggage; then, they were allowed to go.

But the recent incident with Kristine Bumanglag-Moran last June 15 seemed to show that the ‘tanim bala’ modus operandi was far from over! This has angered netizens who called for the Malacañang Palace to look into the matter.

A lot of netizens expressed excitement over the issue, saying they are expecting to see a video of someone or some people from NAIA who will be eating a bullet.

SAP Bong Go issued a marching order for the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) to quickly investigate the matter.

Today, MIAA and the Department of Transportation (DOTr) released a joint statement, announcing the release of the investigation results.

Based on the investigation, it was revealed that Bumanglag-Moran, her mother, and her daughter passed without questions through the initial security screening at Gate 2. But her brown bag was searched after the x-ray operator saw what looked like ammunition inside.

The statement stressed out that at this point, the bag was still wrapped in plastic.

A baggage inspector and a police personnel were asked to assist the operator in inspecting the bag. Pictures were also taken for evidence and documentation. A screening personnel also took a video.

After Bumanglag-Moran took the plastic wrapper, the bullet was later found inside the bag. It was live ammunition for caliber 9mm.

Although they were assured that they are free to go after signing the logbook, Bumanglag-Moran created a scene which she also admitted in her Facebook post.

“The DOTr-MIAA firmly maintains that there was no irregularity on the actions of screening personnel, who simply strictly followed standard operating procedures,” the statement read.

They also added that background research showed that Bumanglag-Moran’s father is a retired Marine while his brother is in the Philippine National Police (PNP); however, the statement did not expound on this connection.

“We ask the public to refrain from making assumptions as investigations are being conducted. Let us also bear in mind that there are airport personnel —- hard working Filipino workers like the rest of us —- whose livelihood, name, and dignity are put to question because of unfair allegations,” the statement ended.

Last June 13, Wednesday, Tatay Eduardo S. Matusalem, driver of RMC Taxi UWN 492, was searching for a passenger after dropping off a foreigner when he noticed that there was a piece of luggage left inside his cab.

Thinking he might not be able to find his last passenger if he goes back to where he dropped the man off, he thought about bringing the bag to TV5’s Action Center to turn it over to Raffy Tulfo; however, the center was already closed for the day.

Instead of getting back on the road and trying to find the owner on his own, he found a parking spot near the TV station and spent the night there waiting for morning when the station opens. He didn’t mind only having earned Php700 that night, knowing he had to return the luggage to its rightful owner. He didn’t even try to open the bag.

By morning, he was able to turn over the bag to the station’s “Solian ng Bayan” program. When the hosts opened the bag, Tatay Eduardo was shocked to find that the bag had a lot of money inside! In fact, the bag contained元240,000 (Yuan) equivalent to Php2,001,766.63!

Thanks to the IDs in the bag, TV5 was able to find its rightful owner, Chinese national Junyi Tao. Junyi immediately went to the station where he met with Tatay Eduardo. He admitted that he thought he would never get back his bag and his money.

According to Junyi, when he realized he left the bag in the cab, he immediately went to the police station to report the incident but the cops who went to the spot where he alighted the cab found no leads because the CCTVs in the area were not working.

Junyi immediately gave Tatay Eduardo Php10,000 as reward and invited him and his family for dinner.

Different cultures have different customs and practices about various things and occasions. But one man in China has deeply regretted following his country’s custom after this led to the loss of his brand new car, just hours after he brought it home.

The driver was from Yangzhou, Jiangsu province in China. There were other cars available in his country but he wanted a BMW so much that he was willing to pay twice its market value in the US, just to drive on in China.

According to reports, he paid nearly half a million yuan (nearly US$80,000) for the vehicle due to taxes and tariffs.

When the vehicle finally arrived, we could easily understand why he wanted to celebrate the occasion. Aside from celebrating the arrival of his brand new car, the unnamed driver decided to burn incense sticks to pray for good luck as well as blessing the car to ensure it will be away from danger and harm.

Outside his home, the man and an elderly woman could be seen laying out a red banner over the hood and placing some dishes filled with offerings to the gods. Then, he lit two towers of incense sticks in front of the vehicle.

What happened next was just so heartbreaking to watch.

“(I) just lit some joss sticks. It was very far (from the car). Twenty minutes later a neighbour told me my car was on fire,” he later explained.

Someone called emergency services and the fire was out after around 10 minutes but by then, the damage was too much that the car appears to be beyond repair! Ouch.

The fire department told the local media that they are still investigating the incident but believe that the man’s worshipping ceremony burned the car. Duh.