Bullet scam victims cleared

Transportation and Communications Secretary Joseph A. Abaya yesterday conceded that persons, mostly overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), arrested for alleged possession of bullets in what is now dubbed the “tanim-bala” (bullet-planting) scam at the airports “are not guilty and had no intent to violate the law.” In an effort to address the tanim-bala incidents, Abaya called on the senators to carve out from the proposed 2016 Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) outlay a budget for the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) for the purchase of security equipment, particularly closed-circuit TV (CCTV). RICOCHET — American Lane Michael White (left), alleged ‘tanim-bala’ victim, sits oppressively quiet like his father, Ryan White (right), as his Filipino stepmother, Eloisa Zoleta, narrates before the Senate yesterday how airport security supposedly framed the younger White of bullet possession in his luggage last September 17. The alleged airport scheme has backfired in a full-blown Senate investigation that [...]