Bomb joke lands baggage handler in jail
Departing passengers at NAIA Terminal I
A baggage loader was arrested Thursday night after making a bomb joke at the aerobridge frisking/inspection area at bay 16 Ramp area of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1.
The suspect was identified as Sandy Gumatin, 22, MIASCOR employee and assigned as a station baggage loader for the Guam-bound United Airlines flight (UA 184), which was scheduled to depart at 10:45 p.m., Mar. 23.
The incident took place at 10:35 p.m. when Gumatin was called to load the intercepted luggage at the departure area.
Gumatin was subjected to a mandatory frisking/inspection at the aerobridge conducted by Nel Barbonio, duty IRM- Security, when the suspect repeatedly uttered, “may bomba ako dito, pasasabugin ko ito [I have a bomb here, I will detonate it here]”.
Barbonio immediately referred the incident to Aircraft Mechanic Engineer Dave Brown, who subsequently informed Chester Go, a duty lead customer service manager, who then filed a formal complaint against the suspect.
P02 Menando Imperial, duty patrol officer at the baggage build up area, then arrested Gumatin.
As a security measure, the airline conducted a secondary inspection by re-screening all the cargoes that were already loaded on the aircraft and held a pat down inspection of all passengers for cabin security inspection, causing the flight to depart at a later time of around 12:48 a.m. Friday, Mar. 24.
The suspect was brought to MIAA-Medical clinic for physical examination and subsequently turned over to PNP-NCR-Aviation Security Unit for the filing of criminal charges.
Gumatin is facing a complaint for violation of Presidential Decree 1727, which declares as unlawful “the malicious dissemination of false information of the willful making of any threat concerning bombs, explosives or any similar device.”
The violation has a corresponding punishment of not more than five years of imprisonment or a fine of not more than P40,000.
The suspect is now detained at the PNP-NCR-AVSEU detention cell after he failed to post bail.