Home 
He just wanted to go to Manila to look for his mother but he had no money for plane fare.
This 12-year old boy from Samar could have pulled off his caper if only the plane seats he took were not reserved for other passengers.
Richard (not his real name) was able to pass unnoticed by airport security at the Mactan Cebu International Airport and board a Philippine Airlines flight bound for Manila without a plane ticket and a boarding pass.
The plane was about to take off when flight attendants noticed a commotion inside the passenger cabin. Other passengers were complaining that Richard was occupying the seats reserved for them. The boy was seen transferring from one seat to another. When they asked for his ticket and boarding pass, Richard could not produce one.
He was taken out of PR flight 848 and was sent back to Pari-an Drop-in Center where he had been staying for seven months now.
MCIC General Manager Danilo Francia said the boy was seen on the CCTV observing the people and was alongside an elder man carrying a lot of baggage. He and his backpack passed inspection.
One of the security personnel asked for Richard?s boarding pass. But the kid said it was with his father. When the guard saw a man waving a boarding pass, he let go of the kid.
Francia said the boy was not a threat to the security and safety of the passengers, saying security personnel must have neglected him because he was just a child.
Francia, however, assured that all personnel involved would be investigated and reprimanded for the security breach.
PAL Security Duty Officer Jonathan Nuevo said they were also investigating their security personnel and some personnel might be suspended. But he said it was an isolated incident.
Richard is from Eastern Samar. He came to Cebu with his 13-year old brother and a friend last June. Richard told social worker Romulo Velasquez they boarded a boat thinking it was going to Manila.
?Ambot giunsa pud nila nga nakasakay sila sa bus ug barko. Basta kay ninonot ra sila sa panun sa mga pasahero. Mga wise man pud mga bataa,? said Velasquez.
Velasquez said that when their father learned of their whereabouts, he came to Cebu in November to take them back but Richard ran away. Only his brother returned with his father to Samar.
Richard went back to the center.
Last December, his father scheduled a visit to the center. But he met an accident and failed to come.
Richard?s father later informed the center he would come on Feb. 1. But he did not. On that same day, one of the center?s staff members complained that his P1,000 was missing.
That night, about 10 p.m., Richard escaped from the center.
