SEATTLE, Washington — It was a smooth and hassle-free flight from Manila to this northwestern state of the USA, home to our youngest daughter and her husband, Gian, who are expecting their firstborn anytime soon. 

Aside from the movie “Sleepless in Seattle,” this city is also the birthplace of some familiar and famous brand names like Starbucks, Amazon, and Boeing. 

My wife, Jay,  is as excited as our daughter, Abbie, so here we are all the way from Davao City with three huge pieces of luggage filled with “pasalubong” for the baby from infancy until she starts to walk. Believe it or not. 

ANA, or All Nippon Airways, pampered us from the moment we checked in our luggage in Manila to San Francisco after a brief layover at Haneda airport in Japan. SFO was our port of entry. There was a long queue at immigration, so much like we have at NAIA, but processing was fast, and so was customs. Our connecting flight via United Airlines was soporific, and since our iPod had run out of power, I quickly dozed off. 

The slight jar on touchdown woke me up. We were in Seattle. It was a long walk from the exit gate to the baggage claim area. Suddenly, I was gripped with the apprehension that our precious luggage might have suffered the same fate as our Philippine Airlines flight from Davao to Manila. 

I aired my plight on Facebook on how a wheel of one suitcase went missing while the padlock on another was twisted like someone had attempted to open it with a crowbar. At the PAL complaints counter at NAIA2, we were told, somewhat condescendingly, that it might have been due to wear and tear, implying that next time we should get brand-new luggage. 

They offered no explanation for how the padlock might have been twisted. PAL later sent me a letter apologizing for what happened with a note that they would refund the expenses incurred in the process. What I was really expecting from PAL was a promise of a thorough investigation into how a suitcase, which their check-in personnel in Davao said “will be handled separately with care,” ended up with an entire wheel assembly ripped off and how the padlock on another bag was so twisted it could not be opened at the complaints desk.

Offering a clue to help in their investigation, I told the supervisor at the complaints counter that it took quite an unusually longer time to unload the luggage from the plane to the conveyor in the baggage claim area. While waiting, I even jokingly told the porter I hired that the cargo handlers might have been busy prying open the luggage to steal or plant bullets as in the “tanim-bala” caper. 

Incidents of planting live bullets to extort money from passengers had recently recurred at NAIA. That caper was stopped when then-President Rodrigo Duterte ordered a thorough probe… or else. Now, passengers air their plaints on FB — “nawala lang si Duterte, bumalik na ang tanim-bala.” (When Duterte left, tanim-bala came back).

PAL had better shape up and assure the public that there are no more thieves and rough handlers in their cargo department. I suggest that aside from CCTVs, cameras be installed in their cargo sections and beamed on wide-screen monitors for baggage claimants to watch.  

It is embarrassing enough that rats have taken shelter in our premier port of entry; let’s shield our flag carrier from sticky-fingered characters and inefficiency.