Iloilo airport security alert heightened
Security measures at the New Iloilo Airport in Sta. Barbara-Cabatuan have been heightened following the bombing of the Zamboanga City International Airport last Thursday and the prank call received last Friday.
Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines Iloilo manager Efren Nagrama said that they have raised the alert level as a precaution for the passengers and the airport personnel.
He said that as part of the heightened level, they have imposed stricter measures in examining the baggage of passengers by using the two X-ray machines they have and moving farther away the waiting area from the arrival.
Nagrama said that they are also in the process of reactivating one X-ray machine from the old Iloilo airport in Mandurriao, Iloilo city as an additional security measure.
They have traced the prank caller that informed about the two grenades that will be detonated at the arrival area of the new airport, he said.
Investigation of the Aviation Security Group, bomb experts from the Explosive and Ordinance Division Team showed that the prank caller used a Globelines phone.
TRANSPORTATION
Meanwhile, Nagrama has appealed to airport passengers to patronize the legitimate transportation as a way of supporting their campaign against colorum vehicles.
The campaign to eradicate colorum vehicles was launched last June but still they have been sending the same appeal to the passengers, he said.
He said that colorum vehicles usually get their chance to have passengers from the airport because people prefer to get a ride outside of the airport premises.
“It is also by patronizing the legitimate transport operators that the passengers could help owners of the colorum vehicles to work out to become legitimate,” Nagrama said.
The colorum vehicles are not registered with the Land Transportation Office, and the owners of these vehicles are not forced to register them because they are also being patronized by passengers. PNA
