DOTr orders e-commerce sites to remove illegal beep card listings
DOTr Secretary Vince Dizon (DOTr photo)
The Department of Transportation (DOTr) has ordered the country’s leading e-commerce platforms to remove unauthorized listings of Beep cards, warning that failure to cooperate would result in legal action from the government.
In a letter made public on Wednesday, August 27, Transportation Secretary Vince Dizon ordered that online shopping operators Shopee, Lazada, TikTok Shop, Meta Philippines, and Carousell remove their listings by Sunday, Aug. 31.
Dizon, in the letter, recalled that these platforms were already requested last Aug. 13 by the DOTr to take down the illegal selling of Beep cards.
However, he noted that several merchants continue to sell these stored-value cards through the said sites.
“Please be informed that the continued proliferation of the stored value cards online is akin to engaging in unauthorized selling of Beep Cards,” the secretary said.
“Online selling platforms which continue to allow this unscrupulous act are complicit to the violations being committed by these hoarders, and may be held liable with the sellers if they fail to act on illegal activities on their platforms,” he stressed.
Dizon said these platforms should likewise prevent any future attempts to post similar listings.
“We shall continue to monitor related activities and if the same persist beyond the above date, the government will be constrained to immediately file the appropriate legal actions against your companies,” the letter read.
Dizon has been zeroing in on what he described as “syndicates” that are hoarding Beep cards to sell online at a jacked-up price.
In a press briefing on Tuesday, the DOTr chief even presented a suspect arrested by authorities from an entrapment operation over the illicit selling of Beep cards through social media.
He has assured the public that the agency will intensify its crackdown against these alleged hoarders.
The DOTr is coordinating with the Anti-Cybercrime Group of the Philippine National Police (PNP) to install CCTVs across ticket stalls inside train stations to catch any act of hoarding.
Dizon said there is no longer a shortage of Beep Cards following the delivery of 300,000 units to Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT-3), Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT-1), and LRT-2.