MACTAN, Cebu – Call it security breach or leniency among airport and airline personnel, but a 12-year-old boy managed to slip past security checks and boarded a plane bound for Manila without a ticket or boarding pass here.

The incident took place last February 2 at the Mactan Cebu International Airport but it was just last Tuesday that news about the incident leaked to the media. Airport Manager Danilo Francia justified the secrecy, saying not everything that happens at the airport needs media coverage.

The boy slipped through two security checks even if he did not have any ticket and managed to get inside the Philippine Airlines Flight 848. Only ticket holders and airport personnel are allowed to pass through the second security check to board an aircraft.

The stowaway was discovered only when the rightful owner of the seat being occupied by the boy complained to the flight stewardess that someone was occupying his seat. The stewardess later said she noticed that it was the second time that the boy changed seats.

“We were too lenient on children because children have always been pure and innocent,” said Francia, as he admitted lapses in airport security and assured that the incident is not something to worry about.

The 12-year-old boy, who ran away from his hometown in Samar, wanted to go to Manila to look for his father. He had been staying at the Parian drop-in center in Cebu City since September.

It was not the first time that the boy had tried to travel without buying tickets. Last year, he was also caught by crew members of a Samar-bound passenger ship for boarding the vessel without a pass.

In the airport incident, Francia said it could be that the security men let the boy pass through because he was not carrying any contraband or deadly weapon.

He said airport personnel were probably not focusing on their job or misguided, “But we are correcting that,” Francia said.

Francia said they had reprimanded personnel involved in the breach and had secured the commitment of all agencies operating at the airport to tighten security to avoid the same incident.

The boy was brought back to the drop-in center.