Mismatch? QC cops vs UAAP Finals scalpers

BIG-TICKET BALL GAME Will you pay P45,000 for a front-row seat to see these Tigers and Archers play today? AUGUST DELA CRUZ

Despite mounting complaints from sports fans and netizens, authorities apparently remain scoreless against scalpers taking advantage of Saturday’s championship basketball game between the UST Tigers and De La Salle Green Archers.

On the eve of Game 2 of the UAAP Finals, the Quezon City Police District said the management of Araneta Center in Cubao had sought its help in guarding the vicinity of the game’s venue against individuals selling tickets outside the box office at exorbitant prices.

With the tickets declared “sold out” as of Friday, the police would keep watch on scalpers trying to make last-minute sales around Araneta for Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. game, said Senior Insp. Gil Carodan, intelligence chief of QCPD’s Cubao station.

“We can arrest them on sight because of a local law that bans ticket scalping,” Carodan said, referring to Ordinance SP-493, S-97, which was passed by the city council in 1997 to ban the sale of event tickets outside their authorized distributors.

The officer cited at least two areas in the Cubao commercial district where scalpers are known to meet buyers within walking distance from the coliseum.

The QCPD, however, has yet to make arrests since ticket sales started earlier this week for the UAAP championship series.

Instead, it was the “vigilance” of students that led to the apprehension of at least one alleged scalper, whose purported photos while in the act of selling tickets had spread in the social media.

In a statement on Friday, Smart Araneta and TicketNet said they had placed a staff member under “preventive suspension” for allegedly being a scalper. The name of the staff member was withheld, but the two companies said they were coordinating with local authorities in investigating the person.

“We would like to thank the students for their vigilance in reporting the alleged scalping incident,” the statement said. “We are also working closely with Station 7 commander Senior Supt. Ramon J. Pranada to go after the scalpers and to deploy more operatives in succeeding events at Smart Araneta Coliseum to intensify the drive against scalping.”

“Scalping is a crime in Quezon City and we fully support the drive against it,” it added.

But it remains to be seen how authorities could go after scalpers who look for buyers online.

A purported seller on a popular classified ads website, for example, is offering UAAP Finals tickets for as much as P45,000 each for Patron seats (regular price, P400) or P4,000 each for the General Admission section (P80).

The seller even had separate lists for UST and DLSU supporters to indicate the remaining number of tickets allotted per camp.

“PM me (Send me a private message) for offers! Rush! Mura na toh (This is cheap), guys! Message me here for meet-ups,” read the sales pitch.

“There are (buyers) who will agree to those prices especially when the tickets are running out or they don’t want to join the long queue,” said QCPD director Chief Supt. Richard Albano. “They can actually file complaints, but that rarely happens.” With a report from Inquirer Research