Despite receiving backlash for his refusal to follow airport security protocols at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), congressman Aniceto “John” Bertiz III revealed that he is still nominated to represent ACTS-OFW Party-List for the 2019 midterm elections.
Bertiz told reporters on Wednesday, November 14, that he was voted as one of the nominees of the party-list for the 2019 polls.
The congressman also revealed that the selection and nomination process happened before his involvement in the NAIA controversy.
“Actually as the chairman of ACTS-OFW Party-List, there was, prior to this incident at the airport, there was a…we underwent the process of selection through the general assembly which all of the majority of the board and its member consisting of 2,700-something attended,” Bertiz explained.
“They (party-list members) were the ones who chose the nominees, it was not us,” he added.
In late September, a Facebook page posted a NAIA CCTV video Bertiz of skipping security measures at the airport by refusing to remove his shoes and harassing an airport staff by shoving his ID to the screening officer’s face.
The incident happened at NAIA Terminal 2 where “security condition level 2” was imposed requiring all employees and passengers to remove their shoes for checking as a security measure.
After supposedly refusing to remove his shoes, the video shows Bertiz shoving his ID to the airport staff’s face and forcibly taking the ID of the latter.
Bertiz has already apologized for his behavior, but explained that he was only calling out the staff for allowing several “Chinese looking” passengers to pass without undergoing security check and exposed that escort system is prevalent in the airport.
