From AlDub’s record-breaking love team, PHL now draws world attention to laglag bala

Overnight, the British Broadcasting Company went from lauding the Philippines' global social media phenomenon AlDub to reporting on what it called the "bullet scam" plaguing the country's international airport in Manila.

A day after BBC reported on October 28 how the split-screen love team of Alden Richards and Maine Mendoza, also known as Yaya Dub, was breaking records on Twitter, the British network on October 29 reported on laglag bala extortion scheme at the NAIA.

The Daily Mail picked up the BBC's lead on November 2, this time drawing notice to the fines travelers had to pay to avoid being charged with illegal possession of ammunition.

It also pointed out the NAIA was only recently removed from the World's Worst Airposts list of travel website http://sleepinginairports.net.

Hong Kong news sites HK Free Press and The Standard published their own reports over the "laglag-bala" scheme the same day.

On Thursday, Fox News' anchor Greta Van Susteren, a former defense lawyer, called out Filipino airport authorities allegedly involved in the extortion scheme.

"The Philippines may get mad at me, but this airport bullet planting scam deserves to be called out!" Van Susteren said in a Facebook post.

A Japanese TV entertainment show even explained how the "laglag-bala" scheme worked in a humorous dramatization.

—Rie Takumi/NB, GMA News