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View all search resultsPesparawi committee reports travel fraud as Riau Islands choir left stranded
A provincial committee managing the Riau Islands' participation in a national choir festival has filed a police report alleging fraud by a travel agency after 63 chorists and officials were left stranded in Jakarta, unable to make the final leg of their trip to the event in Manokwari, West Papua.
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Muted voices: Riau Islands Deputy Governor Nyanyang Haris Pratamura (sixth right) and Jumaga Nadeak (center), chair of the Riau Islands committee for the Ecclesiastical Choir Festival (Pesparawi), pose with members of a local women's choir on June 16, 2026, during a send-off at a restaurant in Batam. The choir was unable to participate in the 14th national choral festival, which ran from June 18 to 28 in Manokwari, West Papua, because the travel agency it used reportedly did not procure tickets for a June 25 connecting flight from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Banten. (Courtesy of Riau Islands provincial administration/-)
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he Riau Islands committee for the Ecclesiastical Choir Festival (Pesparawi) has filed a police report on alleged travel fraud that led to the province’s choral contingent missing out on the 14th edition of the national festival in Manokwari, West Papua.
Upon arriving at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Banten, the Riau Islands contingent was told they did not have confirmed tickets for the connecting flight to Manokwari, only ticket reservations.
Berton Siregar, a representative from the province’s Pesparawi committee, told The Jakarta Post on Sunday that it had filed a report with the Riau Islands Police’s general crimes division.
“We banned [the contingent] from departing for Manokwari because the tickets were not [confirmed] and flights there are limited,” Berton said. “But perhaps because of their fighting spirit, they decided to go anyway.”
Berton said the total cost of the air tickets for 63 participants and officials was around Rp 1 billion (US$56,000) and had been paid in full to the travel agency on May 11, not long after the provincial secretariat disbursed funds from a special grant.
According to him, however, the travel agency did not buy the tickets and instead issued a “fake booking” for the Jakarta-Manokwari leg of the trip.
Missed connection
