Rabiya Mateo and Jeric Gonzales recently addressed the controversy surrounding their alleged entitlement at the concert of a South Korean superstar.
Rabiya addressed circulating blind items about a celebrity couple allegedly attempting to “sneak” into K-pop star’s IU concert, “HEREH World Tour,” held recently at the Philippine Arena for free and expecting “special treatment” at the event.
In response, Rabiya took to her Instagram page to set the record straight, highlighting the importance of fact-checking social media posts.
“While others are so quick to make assumptions without getting their facts right, it shows how people believe what they see online,” Mateo wrote.
“Not everything you read is true. Not everything you see is real. Not everything you hear should be posted online at the expense of other people,” she added.
Rabiya also pointed out that people have seen them lining up for other concerts and insisted that they never acted like VIPs at any event.
“People saw us lining up for pa’no kami luminya kay Lee Min Ho, Coldplay, and Ed Sheeran. Never kami nagpa-VIP2 sa mga concert,” she stressed.
Rabiya further revealed that they had been scammed when they first tried to buy tickets for IU’s concert.
“Just like the rest of you, we had a hard time looking for available tickets,” she explained, “Contrary to what most of you think, walang artista-artista sa paghahanap.”
She further denied the rumors, stating, “We bought the tickets for 12,000 PHP each, just like everyone else. We worked very hard to afford the tickets and never demanded any VIP treatment. We commend the ushers for helping us find our seats.”
Following the backlash, Rabiya revealed that the admin of the Facebook page that spread the blind item had already issued an apology. The admin admitted to not fact-checking the information and relying on hearsay from an usher about Rabiya and Jeric.
“The admin of this page already apologized to us. None of this is true or real. Again, we paid for our tickets. The admin took responsibility for saying she doesn’t know the usher and made the post out of hearsay,” relayed Mateo.
The admin also acknowledged that many people, including the celebrity couple, were among victims of duplicate tickets.
