Corruption at Clark Air Base?

A friend and a classmate of mine in the graduate school has just came back from a one-week vacation in the Philippines to attend her sister's wedding. This afternoon, I was able to chat with her after she took the examination which she was not able to take last Saturday becauase she had her flight going to Philippines earlier.

A Filipina, she has with her in her check-in luggage a bunch of pasalubong for her friends here in Thailand. She also had some Filipino goods specially taken for those who have been missing some Filipino products. When she checked in at the Clark Air Base in Pampanga, two immigration officials were looking at each other. One of them asked her, "Ano ba ang mga laman niyang bagahe mo?" She answered, "Mga pasalubong lang po iyan ma'am." Well, what the hell is happening in the world? Why are those officers were asking what's inside her check-in luggage? What's the use of x-ray? The worst, why do they have to ask my friend to open her check-in luggage? hmmm... these officers must have some hidden motive. That was so obvious.

As far as the law that I knew is concerned, check-in luggage should not be opened unless something suspicious is found in the x-ray. When my friend opened her luggage, those officers told her, "Uy, bawal ang mga iyan!" Bagoong, bench body spray, suka, alcohol at iba pang liquid lang naman ang nandoon and another thing, they were placed in the check-in luggage! The poor officers asked her, "May kasama ka ba?" When my friend said YES, hindi na napigilan ng mga MOKONG at sinabi na talaga, "Amin na lang iyang isa." (pointing the bench body spray)

What I know is liquids are prohibited in carry-on baggage and so passengers are advised to place them in their check-in luggage! hmmm... sabi ko na nga ba, something wrong must have been corrupting their minds... A very kind friend of mine called her companion and gave all those liquids to him and gave the bench body spray to that greedy officer!

We know that lots of tyourists are landing in the Clark Air Base. Is this the kind of practice that we would like to show to the world? Clark Air Base is an international airport! What have we been doing? It's a SHAME! We are expecting these public servants to serve the entire public! Binabayaran na sila ng taong bayan, niloloko pa nila? HUH! Sana sumaya sila!