Something (not-so-)funny happened at the L.A. airport

Had it happened on Friday the 13th (last month) when I landed at the L.A. airport via PR 102 from Manila, I would have attributed it to, you know, bad luck. But it happened on Friday the 20th when I checked in at the same airport for my (PR 103) flight back to Manila, so should I say it was due to, uh, mistaken identity?

Yes, I was mistaken for a terrorist and I was virtually detained for two hours and a half while three different groups of security men turned my badly-battered green Benetton travelling bag (a gift from Martin Nievera) upside-down, inside-out, trying to trace the "substance" that was setting off the "alarm" in the high-tech X-ray machine.

My poor Benetton bag, a "veteran" of long-haul flights, with its contents (books, tapes, magazines, dirty clothes, etc.) spilled over the counter!

When I checked in at the Philippine Airlines counter, the bag passed through the X-ray machine without any problem. But the counter girl said that it had to be brought to a room nearby for "random check." Well and good, I thought. Routine procedure, you know. In this critical era of terrorism, you can never be too sure nor too safe, can you?

The bags of other passengers went through "clear." But my bag set off the "alarm" button in the X-ray machine, with the scary word "ALARM" blinking like mad. "Step aside," the Black security girl told me, unsmiling, lifting my poor Benetton bag onto the counter. "Open it," she ordered me, unsmiling.

The lady, unsmiling still, took out the items piece by piece, until nothing was left inside my poor Benetton bag. Then she scanned the insides with a piece of cellophane (a "litmus" paper?) she held with a forcep-like instrument. Negative! But when she placed it over the handle, she found it positive for – horrors! – bomb powder. Bomb powder!?! Who could have laced my poor Benetton bag with bomb powder!?!

The Black girl, with another Black lady twice her size standing by, dialed a number and, several minutes later, three uniformed men came. Same routine. Still positive for bomb powder. I arrived at the airport at 7:30 and it was now almost 8:30. "I’m afraid I’d miss my flight (at 10:30)," I told Mario Villa who’s with the PAL counter security staff, patiently standing by me throughout what turned out to be an ordeal.

The three men "grilled" me for several minutes, asking what I did for a living back in the Philippines, refusing my STAR ID and demanding instead for my passport. They asked me to retrace the route of my poor Benetton bag from wherever it came from to the airport. I told them that I deposited it with the concierge at the Four Seasons Hotel (Beverly Hills) at around 11 a.m. that day as soon as I checked out, retrieved it at around 6 p.m. before I took a Super Shuttle to the airport, then the shuttle driver lifted it from the shuttle to the sidewalk and then I lifted it into the push cart.

"Did you know," said one of the security men, "that the guy who recently tried to plant a bomb at the airport was a limousine driver?"

By this time, more than two hours into my "detention," I was getting more and more frightened, ready for the worse. The other security man dialed a number and, several minutes later, a trio of burly L.A. cops arrived. Same routine. Still positive. I managed to mumble something like, "Could you just cut off the suspicious handle (of my poor Benetton bag) so I could proceed to the boarding area? I might miss my flight." No, they chorused, things didn’t work as simply as that.

Then they again re-checked the contents of my poor Benetton bag, re-scanned the suspicious handle, asked me the same questions and, for almost an eternity, conferred with one another. One of them turned to Mario Villa, saying (after verifying Mario’s identity), "Can you guarantee that this bag is safe to be loaded on that flight?" I saw Mario nod.

Two hours and a half later, they let me go.

"If they didn’t open the bag early on," Mario told me, "the next procedure would have been for them to ask everybody to vacate and close the airport and call in bomb experts to check your bag."

Until now, I have no idea whose "contaminated" hand touched my poor Benetton bag.

Next time I travel, I think I’ll use a new bag – and not let anybody, and I mean anybody, touch it even with a 10-foot pole.

It wasn’t funny being mistaken for a "terrorist," I tell you!

Promising newcomer

Please welcome Liza Diño, the face in that Likas Papaya commercial and the newest showbiz recruit from the "beauty field."

Being introduced as Ara Mina’s confidante in Regal Films’ Two Timer, directed by Mel Chionglo, Liza was third runner-up (to Darlene Carbungco) in the 2001 Mutya ng Pilipinas contest, later ending up among the top 10 in the Miss Tourism International search in Malaysia.

The daughter of Martin Diño, the Barangay Captain of San Antonio, Quezon City, who become a household name when he served as protector of the girl raped by Leo Echegaray (the first convict subjected to lethal injection), Liza is a B.S. Speech/Communication graduate from UP where she was active in theater. She played Romnick Sarmenta’s co-star in Aurelio Tolentino, directed by Tony Mabesa, playing Gregoria de Jesus. After that, Liza did a dozen other plays.

Direk Mel was impressed with Liza’s talent during an Advanced TV and Film Acting Workshop conducted by the Directors Group (with direk Mel as one of the teachers) and the CCP. That’s how Liza got the role in Two Timer.

She’ll be seen next in the new GMA soap, Hawak Ko ang Langit, with Assunta de Rossi as topbiller.

Asked if she’s joining the current bold craze, Liza said no.

"I’d rather be known for my acting talent than for my body," she said.

Little Asia revisited

Upon the persistent invitation of Charlemagne Lim, who co-owns the place with brother Charlson (the chef) and sister Charlynn (the cashier/accountant), celebrity photographer Richard Chen and I, along with Dr. Wilson Lim and wife, Dr. Lily Lim (and their three children), revisited Little Asia, that cozy restaurant along Tomas Morato Avenue (right across Ratsky) in Quezon City, which offers a wide array of mouth-watering cuisine (from Filipino food to Chinese to Thai to Japanese – name it and Little Asia has it).

This time, Charlemagne wanted our group to "sample" new items on the menu and we very glady obliged (who wouldn’t?), including the Chicken Nambanzuke (P195 per serving), consisting of fried chicken lollipops with marinated vegetables and Japanese-Mirin vinegar; the Lambloin Butteryaki (P410 per serving), pan-seared lamb-loin with teriyaki-butter sauce; Beef Cubes in Japanese Black Pepper Sauce (P255 per serving), sauteed beef cubes with white onions and leeks in black pepper sauce; Malaysian Sweet Barbecue Prawns (P285 per serving), sauteed prawns with peanuts chunks in a unique barbecue glaze; Salt & Pepper Fried Squid (P185 per serving), deep-fried squid tossed in salt and pepper spice mix; Fried Green Beans (P150 per serving), deep-fried green sauteed beans with sauteed Chinese vegetables; and Thai Eggplant with Minced Pork and Shrimps (P150 per serving), eggplant stuffed with pork and shrimps in sweet-Thai sauce.

Little Asia is celebrating its first anniversary in December yet and (especially on weekends), you need to reserve a space if you’re going in a bunch.

Besides the food, owner Charlemagne’s good PR surely keeps satisfied – and burping – clients coming again, and again.