Curiouser: 5 passengers use same name, held by airport cops

MANILA, Philippines–What’s in a name?

A possible fake ticket scam, airport police said, of the five passengers who boarded a flight to Caticlan, Aklan province, over the weekend using the same name.

Chief Supt. Pablo Francisco Balagtas, director of the Philippine National Police Aviation Security Group (PNP-Avsegroup), said the five men bound for Boracay checked in at a Manila airport on May 2 and roused suspicions because their tickets bore the same name.

The five underwent inquest proceedings in a Pasay City prosecutor’s office on Monday for falsification of commercial documents, but were ordered released pending further investigation.

Balagtas did not identify the passengers or the name they used, but said they were apparent victims of a scam that sold cheap and fake airline tickets. Follow-up operations were under way against the seller of the fake tickets, he said.

“They had the same name on a ticket for the same flight, which is really suspicious,” the Avsegroup chief told the Inquirer, adding that the passengers should not have bought the ticket when part of the deal was to use a fake name.

Priced much lower

The ticket must have been priced much lower than the usual P5,000 cost of a one-way flight from Manila to Caticlan, enticing the five passengers to buy it under an assumed name, Balagtas said.

“It is really safer to buy tickets directly from the airlines,” he said.

The Avsegroup chief said the five passengers came under suspicion when they presented tickets bearing the same name to check in for an early morning flight to Caticlan, the gateway to Boracay island, at Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3.

Balagtas said the airline supervisor noticed the unlikely coincidence and immediately reported the irregularity to the Avsegroup.

Police accosted the departing passengers at the boarding gate and held them for questioning at the Avsegoup headquarters.

Balagtas said the Avsegroup, the airport police, and airline companies were working closely to investigate the source of the fake tickets for possible arrest.