First bugs, now rats? Timing of Philippine airport’s vermin outbreak sparks conspiracy theories

When vermin suddenly started appearing in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), people smelled a rat.

In late February, travellers in NAIA Terminal 2 complained they had been bitten by surot (bedbugs) that were teeming in its rattan benches. They posted photos of insect bites on their arms and legs, as well as images of the bugs.

In the first week of March, at least two separate videos posted by passengers in Terminal 3 showed a large rat scurrying openly across the floor between people’s legs. After that, a traveller posted photos of cockroaches emerging from chairs.

While NAIA has been beset by innumerable problems in the past, the vermin outbreak seemed to be unprecedented and its timing suspicious, as the sightings started shortly after the February 16 announcement that the government-run airport would be privatised under a consortium led by local beer brewing giant San Miguel Corporation (SMC), which won a 179 billion pesos (US$3.18 billion) contract to operate, maintain and upgrade NAIA for 15 to 25 years.

The pest sightings and privatisation announcement combined to unleash a swarm of conspiracy theories, with many on social media postulating that the vermin outbreak may have been engineered.

On X, formerly Twitter, one person who claimed to live in a rat-infested area said the rodents would never run across open ground as they did in the videos. The ones in NAIA, he said, “are so planted”.

Another account said, “It feels like a well-paid propaganda effort to make the planned rehabilitation under the current government … really look good. What are they not telling us?”

The rats in the video seemed confused and disoriented, as if unfamiliar with the area, another X user said, adding that the whole thing could be