MANILA –– The Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) on Monday recognized a team of airport police officers for being able to track an abusive taxi driver and recover a passenger’s valuables that the driver had stolen and pawned.
Every month, MIAA recognizes its employees who made exemplary performances, as well as those who exhibited honesty and integrity while on duty.
On Monday, the MIAA management, led by General Manager Ed Monreal, awarded a team from the Intelligence and Investigation Division (IID) composed of Inspector Roderick Mejia, Inspector Victor Mallari, Airport Police Officer 2 (APO2) Ismael Rivera, APO2 Marzel Pangda and APO1 Dyron Candido. Two from Airport Police Department, APO1 Noriel Melarpis and APO1 Mark Anthony Castillo, were also awarded.
Last month, a female passenger approached airport authorities, saying a driver tried to charge her PHP1,700 to go to Muntinlupa so she opted to transfer to another taxi. However, her backpack was not among the baggage unloaded from the taxi, and the driver immediately sped off.
The bag reportedly contained five pairs of earrings, one gold necklace with an estimated value of PHP25,000 to PHP30,000, three pieces of watches with an estimated value of PHP17,000 to PHP25,000, passbook and automated teller machine (ATM) card with PHP243,000, personal items worth PHP6,000, employment documents, and chocolates.
The airport police officers were able to track taxi driver Rodel Ormillo of Queensmen taxi. They were also able to recover all of the passenger’s belongings.
Department of Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade graced the awarding ceremony. He thanked the awardees for keeping the public, especially the passengers, safe.
Tugade also congratulated Monreal and all of MIAA employees for their efforts. He remarked that these efforts were the reason why the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) has been removed from the list of the worst airports, and is now included in the list of the world’s most improved airports. (Ma. Cristina Arayata/PNA)
