A Filipino domestic worker who was arrested and detained at Manila Airport after a live bullet was “planted” in her luggage has been told she’s lost her job in Hong Kong.
Gloria Ortinez, 56, received the upsetting news after finally arriving in the territory on Saturday following her detention for three days in the Philippines capital. She was told her job offer no longer stood, despite the fact that her case was dismissed due to unreliable evidence.
Ortinez was about to board a flight to Hong Kong from Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) on Oct. 25 when two policemen claimed they found a single live bullet in her handbag.
However, according to Gulf Today, the bullet photographed at the time did not match the bullet presented as evidence to the court, and Ortinez claimed she was a victim of “laglag bala”, where corrupt police, luggage processors and X-ray officials plant bullets on passengers in a bid to extort money.
Ortinez, who worked in Hong Kong for 13 years, has become the face of “laglag bala” since the incident hit headlines both in Hong Kong and the Philippines.
The policemen who claimed to have found the bullet have been suspended pending an investigation, while Joseph Emilio Abaya, secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communication, personally apologised to Ortinez at a public hearing on Friday.
Photo: An Nguyen
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