Sen. Grace Poe said she believes that the next person to lead the Office for Transportation Security (OTS) should have an immense political will to overhaul the agency.

She issued the statement on Wednesday, Sept. 27 after the courtesy resignation of OTS Administrator Undersecretary Ma. O Aplasca following the alleged theft incident at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1. 

House Speaker Martin Romualdez even told Aplasca to tender his resignation immediately after this incident and should he refuse, Romualdez said he would personally block the OTS budget.

Poe said that finding that kind of leader is the challenge now since having those qualities will prevent such incidents from happening again.

However, Poe said that his resignation did not clean up the ranks. 
 

"More than ever, the OTS needs steady leadership to implement much-needed reforms," she added.

She further stated that actions should not be made just after an incident and there should be zero tolerance for criminal acts and unprofessional behavior adding that while a witchhunt might put a syndicate on pause, the OTS urgently needs to review and tighten its security program.

"Our airports should improve the physical layout of the security screening stations and provide proactive measures to prevent any further incidents," she said.

"The OTS must improve its system at the point of hiring, review its recruitment policies, and enforce ethics training. Employees must undergo extensive background checks," she added.

In the long-term, Poe also stated that the government should also look into providing better compensation and benefits to these employees so they would not be enticed to steal which was also raised during the Senate finance subcommittee hearing of DOTr's budget.

"As of July 2023, more than half of the OTS manpower are still contractual personnel with only 475 with permanent status," Poe disclosed.

She also mentioned that the permanent solution is still to give security of tenure and increase the salary of highly-skilled technical personnel in the airports.

Since the OTS also collects airport security fees for passenger tickets, Poe said that a portion of these fees should be used to compensate passengers who have well-founded claims against OTS employees.