Avoid hassles, check prohibited items list

Kirby Borreros, 26, packed easy-open cans of tuna in his carry-on bag, hoping to eat them in the pre-departure lounge of Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) while waiting for his early morning flight.

But upon putting his bag through the X-ray machine, Office for Transportation Security (OTS) personnel informed him he can’t bring the canned tuna.

Instead of leaving them behind, Borreros found a spot near the X-ray machine, opened the cans and ate all the tuna.

“The tuna was worth P60 to P75. Thinking back on it now, I probably looked stupid, eating beside the X-ray machines where everyone can see me. But it was my fault because I didn’t check what I could and couldn’t bring,” said Borreros.

Jemar Nietes, OTS supervisor of MCIA, reminded passengers to check the list of prohibited items before going to the airport.

“Make sure you know by heart what you can and cannot bring. The items are a waste when you surrender them because we end up throwing all of that away,” he said.

“Also check all the pockets of carry-on bags for items that you might have missed. It’s really a waste,” said Nietes.

Ever since the travel light promo became popular with travelers, Nietes said they have been getting a lot of items that aren’t supposed to be in carry-on bags.

Nietes said many people still get intercepted and have their items surrendered to airport security despite visual reminders of what not to bring in their carry-on luggage.

Posted on the agency’s social media accounts is an infographic of items allowed in check-in baggage but prohibited in carry-on bags.

The items are divided into five categories, namely: stunning objects; objects with sharp points and edges; blunt instruments; workers’ tools; and liquids, aerosols and gels.

Prohibited on both check-in and carry-on are firearms, or any device that may discharge projectiles, and explosives and other incendiary substances and devices.

“The most common items we intercept are liquids, aerosols and gels exceeding 100ml,” said Nietes.

Bottled water is also a commonly intercepted item.

Intercepted items, called SRIs or security risk items, are dumped into the SRI surrender box, a large cylindrical black box located by the X-ray machines.

When full, OTS personnel call airport police to collect the bin. An average of three full bins are collected every week.

Once with the airport police, the bins are kept untouched in a warehouse for three to five days, after which the Logistics Sector of the Emergency

Securities and Services Department open them up for segregation, said chief of logistics Clifford Wahing.

Once segregated into boxes, the items continue to be stocked in the warehouse for over a month, before being disposed.