MIAA General Manager Ed Monreal The Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) on Monday recognized a team of airport police officers for tracking down a taxi driver who sped off with a passenger’s valuables and recovering the stolen items.

MIAA General Manager Ed Monreal awarded a team from the Intelligence and Investigation Division composed of Inspector Roderick Mejia, Inspector Victor Mallari, Airport Police Officer 2 (APO2) Ismael Rivera, APO2 Marzel Pangda and APO1 Dyron Candido. Two from Airport Police Department, APO1 Noriel Melarpis and APO1 Mark Anthony Castillo, were also awarded.

Department of Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade graced the awarding ceremony. He thanked the awardees for keeping the public, especially the passengers, safe.

Last month, the team helped a female passenger who reported that a driver tried to charge her P1,700 to go to Muntinlupa. She transferred to another taxi but her backpack was not among the baggage unloaded and the cab driver immediately sped off.

The bag reportedly contained five pairs of earrings, one gold necklace with an estimated value of P25,000 to P30,000, three pieces of watches with an estimated value of P17,000 to P25,000, passbook and automated teller machine card with P243,000, personal items worth P6,000, employment documents, and chocolates.

The airport police officers were able to track taxi driver Rodel Ormillo of Queensmen taxi. They were also able to recover all of the passenger’s belongings.

Tugade congratulated Monreal and all of MIAA employees for their efforts. He remarked that these efforts were the reason why the Ninoy Aquino International Airport has been removed from the list of the worst airports, and is now included in the list of the world’s most improved airports.