Leonardia leads House probe on NAIA shooting

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — Representative Evelio Leonardia, vice chair of the House committee on transportation, presided at the first congressional inquiry into the shooting incident at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

The shooting claimed the lives of four: Mayor Ukol Talumpa of Labanga, Zamboanga del Sur, his wife Lea and nephew Salipudin, and an 18-month-old boy Phille Thomas Estoesta from this city.

The baby's family was at the arrival area of the NAIA terminal when the shooting happened, the stray bullets of which also injured his mother Marie Ann Lirazan, grandmother Amalia and cousin Dhianne Philippe Uy.

At the hearing, Leonardia confirmed there were four security groups operating at the airport: the PNP, the Airport Police Department, the Office of Transportation Security (OTS) and the blue guards. "This is unwieldy, and their parameters sometimes get blurred", the congressman however said.

"There is a need to integrate security operations at the NAIA to make it seamless," Leonardia said after the hearing. "We should also look at the rest of the country's airports to see if they also need the same streamlining," he added.

"As I had promised the people of Bacolod, I am taking an active role in this inquiry as my humble way of giving justice to baby Phille who lost his life at a very young age, and the other members of his family who were injured," he said. — (FREEMAN)