Sports center user slams alleged ticket recycling

CEBU, Philippines - Is the Cebu City Sports Center recycling its tickets?

A sports enthusiast took this concern to Facebook, saying the ticket issued to him and several others at the center’s entrance were recycled.

Those who use the sports center pay a P20 entrance fee are issued tickets to prove payment.

“I am always vigilant that the tickets issued to me are directly ripped off from the ticket booklet,” reads Marc Lumayag’s post on the social networking site on February 28. 

He said that the tickets the guard issued to him and some others were from a pile of used tickets.

“Yesterday (27 Feb 2015), I happened to use the P. Del Rosario extension entrance. When I queued to pay, two patrons were in front of me and my instinct told me to watch if the tickets given to them were ripped directly off from the booklet. To my surprise, there were already detached tickets that were neatly filed on top of a ticket booklet and these were the ones issued to the two. An already detached ticket was also given to me when it was my turn to pay,” his post reads.

He reportedly compared the ticket issued to him with the ones issued to those who entered directly before him and found out that the numbers on their tickets did not follow a correct sequence.

Lumayag said at least seven tickets reportedly issued on February 27 had serial numbers that were out of the sequence – 390843, 390786, 39114, 389113, 386555, 387838 and 389370.

 “This was around 7.15 pm and in the next 25 minutes, I approached a number of other patrons, compared and collected their tickets. These tickets are simply out of order to be coming from the same booklet or even issued in one day,” his Facebook post reads further.

Sought for clarification, sports center manager Ricky Ballesteros said the tickets cited by Lumayag were duly audited and subsequently remitted from the issued ticket stubs at the main entrance along R. Landon Extension.

This is contrary to Lumayag’s claim that the tickets were issued at the P. Del Rosario extension entrance.

Ballesteros said the tickets were detached from the office ticket booklets based on the closed circuit television camera footages. The ticket stubs were also issued on different dates from February 18, 22, 23, 24 and 26, not only on February 27 as Lumayag alleged, Ballesteros said.

“Ang ticket nga wa pa nagisi sa main entrance, didto gi-present balik sa entrance (P. Del Rosario Extension) nga ticket seller. Klaro man kaayo sa video nga naka-focus sa tickets, hands sa ticket seller and clients and surveillance cameras, which is klaro nga gigisi gyod gikan sa ticket booklet,” he said.

 Each entrance at the sports center is manned by at least three personnel, including the ticket seller.

 Ballesteros admitted, nevertheless, that there are times when guards fail to rip the ticket stubs off because of the heavy influx of people entering the facility.

 “Usahay, dili magisi tungod kay gamiton ang ticket para makabilin kag things at the courtesy booth and sometimes for refund purposes,” he added.

 Ballesteros said he reached out to Lumayag to clarify the matter but did not receive any response as of yesterday. — (FREEMAN)