This is a follow up to the "laglag bala" scam in the Philippines airport. According to Michael White, he was asked to pay P30,000.00. The price will rise to P80,000.00 if it will reach police heaquarters his stepmother said. Eloisa Zoleta and her stepson recount the ordeal in the airport last September.
They cops try to extort them but they refuse and said that they were innocent. The family during that time were going to Coron, Palawan to look for a piece of land because they wanted to build a church.
Zoleta said a bullet was found after White’s bag passed through the X-ray machine several times.
Nothing was detected when the bag was first checked, but after screening officer Maria Elma Cena allegedly put her hand inside the flap of White’s bag, the bullet was discovered in the next X-ray scan, she said.
After they were informed of the discovery, Zoleta asked the screening officers if she should have their flights to Coron moved. They told her it would be an easy matter, a remark that she found baffling if there really had been a violation of the law.
“The screening officers said, ‘That’s OK. It would be easy,’” she said, adding that Cena even told her that the flight wasn’t even until 12:45 p.m.
“I was thinking that if it was really the law and there was one ammo found in the luggage, shouldn’t their answer be that we wouldn’t be able to go to Coron because they would jail my son? Shouldn’t that be the answer if they were implementing it?” she said.
White was subsequently brought to the office of the Philippine National Police, while Zoleta tried to take care of their tickets.
Police officer Junio
She said a PNP officer she identified only as “PNP officer Junio” asked her about what had happened. After explaining, Junio told her about paying for the dropping of the case, she said.
“Usually we let the possession of such items pass. We just say it’s an amulet. If we negotiate that here, it (will cost you) P30,000. But if it’s passed on to headquarters, it’s P80,000,” Zoleta recalled the police officer as saying.
Preacher with no salary
He also asked about her husband’s job and she informed him he was a preacher who did not receive a salary. The officer also asked about White’s job and she told him he had resigned from his job.
Their conversation ended then because Zoleta’s brother called her up, and she never saw the police officer again.
White also said a police officer, Rolando Clarin, had told him he could pay P30,000 or face the prospect of jail. But he said the bullet was not his and he did not have the amount.
Zoleta said the officers had tried to convince them to own up to the bullet possession.
She said another officer had appealed to her to help White, as he was a foreigner and his life could be ruined.
Pregnant
And as they were about to head for White’s inquest, Zoleta said Cena came up to her and told her that she could have just admitted to carrying the bullet since she was pregnant, and there was a humanitarian law.
“I responded to her, ‘ma’am, why would I admit it?’ I know that’s the easier way out to say it’s ours and I’m pregnant, but I told her we’re Christians. We can’t lie about a small thing just to find an easy way out,” she said.
They cops try to extort them but they refuse and said that they were innocent. The family during that time were going to Coron, Palawan to look for a piece of land because they wanted to build a church.
Zoleta said a bullet was found after White’s bag passed through the X-ray machine several times.
Nothing was detected when the bag was first checked, but after screening officer Maria Elma Cena allegedly put her hand inside the flap of White’s bag, the bullet was discovered in the next X-ray scan, she said.
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| Michael White |
After they were informed of the discovery, Zoleta asked the screening officers if she should have their flights to Coron moved. They told her it would be an easy matter, a remark that she found baffling if there really had been a violation of the law.
“The screening officers said, ‘That’s OK. It would be easy,’” she said, adding that Cena even told her that the flight wasn’t even until 12:45 p.m.
“I was thinking that if it was really the law and there was one ammo found in the luggage, shouldn’t their answer be that we wouldn’t be able to go to Coron because they would jail my son? Shouldn’t that be the answer if they were implementing it?” she said.
White was subsequently brought to the office of the Philippine National Police, while Zoleta tried to take care of their tickets.
Police officer Junio
She said a PNP officer she identified only as “PNP officer Junio” asked her about what had happened. After explaining, Junio told her about paying for the dropping of the case, she said.
“Usually we let the possession of such items pass. We just say it’s an amulet. If we negotiate that here, it (will cost you) P30,000. But if it’s passed on to headquarters, it’s P80,000,” Zoleta recalled the police officer as saying.
Preacher with no salary
He also asked about her husband’s job and she informed him he was a preacher who did not receive a salary. The officer also asked about White’s job and she told him he had resigned from his job.
Their conversation ended then because Zoleta’s brother called her up, and she never saw the police officer again.
White also said a police officer, Rolando Clarin, had told him he could pay P30,000 or face the prospect of jail. But he said the bullet was not his and he did not have the amount.
Zoleta said the officers had tried to convince them to own up to the bullet possession.
She said another officer had appealed to her to help White, as he was a foreigner and his life could be ruined.
Pregnant
And as they were about to head for White’s inquest, Zoleta said Cena came up to her and told her that she could have just admitted to carrying the bullet since she was pregnant, and there was a humanitarian law.
“I responded to her, ‘ma’am, why would I admit it?’ I know that’s the easier way out to say it’s ours and I’m pregnant, but I told her we’re Christians. We can’t lie about a small thing just to find an easy way out,” she said.
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