PAL beefs up airport security in Zamboanga

By EMMIE V. ABADILLA
August 8, 2010, 11:40am

Philippine Airlines (PAL) has beefed up its security at Zamboanga Airport to ensure the safety of its passengers, following suspected suicide bombing outside the airport terminal the other night.

PAL operations at Zamboanga remain normal, with a daily morning and evening flight to/from Manila, using the Airbus A320 aircraft, according to Lolito Galarrita, PAL's branch manager at Zamboanga.
The Zamboanga Aviation Security Group intensified body and baggage searches at the airport while the PAL Security office in Manila alerted all its domestic stations to be extra vigilant.
Security at the NAIA Terminal 2 was also heightened with the deployment of additional explosive detecting dogs (EDDs) of PAL's exclusive K-9 unit.

PAL is extending assistance to the 9th Police Center for Aviation Security (PCAS) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in their investigation on the deadly Zamboanga bombing that killed one and wounded 23 others.

Galarrita said no PAL passenger was among those killed or wounded. After the explosion, PAL and the Zamboanga PNP immediately secured the arriving passengers and the PAL airplane. After the aircraft departed back for Manila, the passengers who just arrived were moved to the pre-departure area until the whole terminal was cleared of any further security threat.

Police Senior Superintendent Danilo M. Abadiano, chief of the 9th PCAS, identified the lone fatality as Hatanil Harun Yacub, resident of Lantawan, Basilan, who died on the spot just outside the arrival area.

Most of the wounded were rushed to Ciudad Medical Center and Doctors Hospital.
Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat immediately convened the Crisis Management Committee to investigate the bombing.