Airport ‘surot’ and other embarrassments

There was “tanim bala,” then there was “subo pera.” Tanim bala referred to the act of planting bullets in the luggage of outgoing Filipino passengers at the international airport and holding them to explain why they had the prohibited items in their belongings. This had resulted in missed flights, tearful and angry protestations, and who knows what else. Pay-offs?

True, there might have been real cases of passengers who, because of ignorance or superstition, had bullets as amulets or baon, but when pre-departure dramas became too frequent to be credible and because of too many bullets that could not be explained, investigations had to be conducted. Who in the airport were preying on passengers and making them cough up explanations and whatever else in order that they would be allowed to board their flights? As most investigations go, we know little or nothing about their outcomes. Such modus operandi would soon become passé only to be replaced by others less novel but just as execrable.

Losing valuables in the blink of an eye while one’s carry-ons go through the airport X-ray machine or while one is undergoing body inspection could only be because of someone’s sleight of hand (mabilis ang kamay in Filipino). A recent example was caught on an airport surveillance camera. A foreigner lost his cash to an airport inspection personnel who shoved the stolen bills into her mouth, an utterly unsanitary, shameless modus. What else should one call it if not subo pera (to shove money into one’s mouth to avoid getting caught)? What an embarrassment for this country that takes pride in its hospitality, its number one tourist come-on. But what an embarrassment, too, for the one caught with a wad of stolen bills hidden in her oral cavity.

Airport personnel may or may not be direct hires or tenured employees of the airport facility but who cares? The shameful act of a Filipino preying on a traveler, tourist or not, tarnishes all of us Filipinos.

The bloodsucker of the third kind is not a human being but a colony of bloodsucking crawlers, the “surot” or bed bugs recently discovered to be thriving in airport chairs. Rats and roaches, too, but the smelly surot live hidden lives such that when their presence is felt, they make news. Last year, in France, they did. Not only were they in airports, they were in cinemas, trains, and other means of transport. It was an infestation that needed to be urgently addressed.

If not for a passenger who posted pictures of her bug-bitten thighs, Manila’s international airport authorities would not have been so quickly alerted. I dread to imagine that some of these bugs might have latched on to passengers’ clothing and settled in an airline seat for a Pan Pacific flight. Bed bugs are described as great hitch-hikers. Who knows what smaller creatures or organisms might hitchhike on them?

Beats the “Snakes on a Plane” movie. But why not? The coronavirus believed to have been spawned in China and which struck the world ill with COVID-19 easily took off on planes and crossed the continental divides. It made the world shut down for three long years while it was killing close to seven million people (World Health Organization 2023 report) from all walks of life. The Philippines logged close to 67,000 deaths.

I saw a recent video footage of airport chairs being fumigated while the bugs were peeping out of the perforated metal seats. Those perforated metal and rattan furniture are perfect breeding and feeding places for these bugs. They must go, along with the pest control company that failed in its job.

There are speculations that the surot in the airport might have come from elsewhere (but of course) and that they seemed to be of a different species not commonly found hereabouts. The entomologists and pest control experts should have the last word. It is one thing to have come from somewhere but it is another thing to have been purposely put there. If it is the latter, what do we have here, a surot conspiracy? A surot sabotage?

Researchers have discovered that bed bugs evolved alongside dinosaurs more than 100 million years ago. The abominable surot—what is its present place in the ecosystem, the food chain, and in the life of this planet besides reminding us of government negligence even in small things? And of the existence of other bloodsuckers in society that we need to name and blame?

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