Police arrested in Makati City a woman caught illegally selling tickets of this year´s Metro Manila Film Festival.
The suspect Hanna Evangelista was arrested in an entrapment operation conducted by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Barangay Guadalupe around 11 a.m. Saturday
Another person, said to be boyfriend of Evangelista’s, was also placed under police custody.
Prior to the entrapment operation, Evangelista was found selling the MMFF movie tickets via social media, particularly on Facebook.
One of her online status posts seen her saying “Sino po ang gusto mag avail? Metro Manila Film Festival Ticket. Lahat lahat pong iyan. PM for orders and reservations. No to cancellations.”
Members of the MMFF Committee and MMDA officials learned about Evangelista´s social media post, prompting them to seek the help of the CIDG for the entrapment operation. They also claimed the tickets being sold by the suspects were fake.
MMDA chairman Danilo Lim, who chairs the MMFF committee, warned the public against unscrupolous individuals using social media flatforms to victimize moviegoers.
“Please don´t be fooled by these people who sell fake MMFF passes. Miss Evangelista is now with the police. And those who bought and will be caught using these fake passes ay be held criminally liable too,” said Lim.
The MMDA is the overall organizer and the supervising body of the annual festival.
During the time of then chairman and now Senator Francis Tolentino, a man was arrested, also for selling fake MMFF tickets.
The suspect said someone offered to give him money in exchange for selling forged MMFF passes online. The falsified passes were advertised at the buy and sell website sulit.com and cost P800 each.
The fake passes have the same serial numbers as with the genuine ones.
Also in 2017, the MMDA under the supervision of then general manager Thomas Orbos came up with a new policy in distributing free MMFF passes after two of its personnel, including a traffic enforcer, were caught selling them on social networking sites.
According to Orbos, this modus may have been going on for years, especially since a quick check of one of the suspect´s previous Facebook postings showed that he sold two MMFF passes in previous years for P500.
Each MMDA employee receives a free MMFF pass every year.
The MMFF is an annual event organized primarily to help promote and enhance the preservation, growth and development of the local film.
The MMFF beneficiaries include the Movie Workers Welfare Foundation Inc., Motion Picture and Anti-Film Piracy Council, Film Development Council of the Philippines, and the Optical Media Board.