Senator Pangilinan seeks to protect Filipinos from ticket scalping

Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan urged concerned government agencies, event organizers, and ticketing platforms to adopt stricter measures against ticket scalping and protect Filipino fans from abusive practices.

Pangilinan said this ahead of the ticket sale for the highly anticipated April concert of a major Pinoy pop group.

As excitement continues to build among supporters, concerns have also been raised over the possible surge in ticket scalpers who buy tickets in bulk and resell them at heavily marked-up prices.

“Scalping undermines fair access to entertainment events. These practices burden and exploit fans as scalpers and those behind these nefarious activities seek excessive profit,” the senator said.

“We urge relevant government agencies, event organizers, and ticket-selling platforms to strengthen safeguards that prevent hoarding and unauthorized resale of tickets and to act decisively to ensure that tickets reach the rightful concertgoers at the official price,” he added.

Earlier this week, Pangilinan presided over a joint committee hearing on his proposed Senate Bill No. 226, also known as the “Anti-Ticket Scalping Act,” which seeks to establish a national policy explicitly prohibiting ticket scalping.

He said the proposed Anti-Ticket Scalping Act seeks to strengthen consumer protection, hold exploiters accountable, and ensure fans can fairly access tickets.

During the hearing, he challenged the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to “make an example” out of ticket scalpers by invoking the Cybercrime Prevention Act against individuals and syndicates using automated bots to hoard concert tickets for resale at exorbitant prices.

The call comes amid growing public frustration over the quick selling out of major concerts and events, with many fans reporting that tickets which disappear within minutes  reappear online at vastly inflated prices.

Ticket scalping has increasingly dominated online discussions as more major local and international acts are holding concerts.