OTS staff swallowed money not chocolates, says DOTr chief

Four employees of the Office for Transportation Security (OTS) have been found liable in connection with the missing dollars of a passenger at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport recently, Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista said on Tuesday night.

Bautista said the administrative investigation also found that it was money—not chocolates—that one of the OTS personnel involved swallowed in a video that has been circulated about the incident.

The four employees—two men and two women—have been suspended and may be dismissed from the service following due process.

A criminal investigation would follow the administrative proceedings to determine if there were other personnel involved.

"Apat kasi yung nakita talaga na may mga ginagawa doon sa CCTV. Siguro 'pag nagkaroon ng imbestigasyon ay lalabas pa kung meron pang other people involved," Bautista said.

(There were four people seen on CCTV who were caught doing something. Maybe when an investigation is done, we will know if there were other people involved.)

Bautista said the Department of Transportation (DOTr) would be stricter in its recruitment of OTS staff.

Current employees would have retraining.

The OTS personnel were investigated after a passenger complained that he lost money at the airport.

An inspection was immediately conducted but the officers failed to find the missing cash.

A CCTV footage which showed a 28-year-old contractual employee of the OTS swallowing an object and drinking some water had been a subject of the probe.

Officials looked into whether the item she placed in her mouth was the missing cash.

OTS administrator Ma.O Ranada Aplasca has submitted his courtesy resignation days after the incident.

In a letter addressed to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Aplasca said he was resigning after Speaker Martin Romualdez said he would block the approval of the 2024 proposed budget of the OTS and the DOTr should he stay in office.

“I am not in any way ready to sacrifice my organization but I consider this as a noble undertaking for a greater interest,” Aplasca said.

Bautista said the resignation had yet to be accepted by Marcos.

The officer in charge of the OTS will be Deputy Administrator Assistant Secretary Jose Briones, Jr.

"He’s very sad about it. Sabi niya mayroon nga raw pagkukulang 'yung agency. although sinasabi niya karamihan dito mga minanang mga problema," Bautista said of Aplasca.

(He said the agency had some failures, although he was saying that most of those were problems carried over from previous years.)

"Sabi ko sa kanya may mga nangyayari talaga (I told him that things happen) and we have to accept the fact that we have responsibilities also as officials," he added. —NB/KG, GMA Integrated News