E-sabong pa more at Senate hearing (Latest Sabong News)
Author
Marit Stinus-Cabugon
Date
APRIL 24 2023
POLICE SSg. Noel Alabata was tagged as the triggerman in the March 2, 2021 attack on two businessmen in Dumaguete City that left one target wounded and the assailant himself seriously injured. Well, the "to serve and protect" motto of the Philippine National Police notwithstanding, the news about Alabata hardly shocks anybody in this day and age. The public has become accustomed to news about policemen being involved in violent crime. Take the March 8, 2021 bloody ambush that killed Calbayog City Mayor Ronald Aquino. No less than nine policemen were indicted for the attack. They were granted bail a few weeks ago.
Alabata's case is just one of the many sickening truths being unearthed in the course of the Senate inquiry into the March 4 Pamplona massacre and other violent crimes and alleged illegal activities in Negros Oriental.
Another disturbing revelation was the visit of Negros Oriental Third District Rep. Arnolfo "Arnie" Teves Jr. to the National Bureau of Investigation's regional office in Cebu City on Sept. 20, 2022. This was four days after the September 16 raid by the NBI of the Amenic N' Calajoan Cockpit Arena in Minglanilla, Cebu, for engaging in e-sabong-related operations. Teves and his entourage visited the NBI office to advise regional director lawyer Rennan Oliva to leave e-sabong operations alone. Of course, Oliva couldn't accept such a proposition considering that e-sabong was illegal and he had been given marching orders to run after all forms of unlawful activities.
Oliva testified that, prior to the meeting, he got a call from NBI Central Luzon assistant regional director Noel Bocaling requesting him (Oliva) to see Teves, and to listen to him even as cases had already been filed against the operators of the Calajoan cockpit.
Oliva further testified that Congressman Teves, while insisting that he was no longer personally involved in e-sabong operations, warned the NBI official that a lawsuit in connection with the September 16 raid was forthcoming. On February 28, or five months later, Mary Cris Cabalquinto, neither owner nor operator but cashier of the cockpit, through Cebuano lawyer Louie Arma, filed a complaint with the Ombudsman for the Visayas against 10 NBI officials, including Oliva. Cabalquinto alleged that the raiding team had carted away P9 million.
What we know about the Minglanilla cockpit is that it appears to have been part of Sabong International PH's Pagcor-licensed e-sabong operations even if, according to Oliva, the cockpit wasn't actually registered with Pagcor. Visayas Cockers Club Inc. which, according to a July 4, 2021 article on Bilnyonario.com, is owned by Bacolod City Mayor and former Negros Occidental representative Albee Benitez, was licensed to operate e-sabong — under the brand Sabong International PH — effective June 3, 2021. It was the third company to get a license to operate e-sabong, after Charlie "Atong" Ang's Lucky 8 Star Quest Inc. (Pitmasters Live) and Belvedere Vista Corp.'s Sabong Express, owned by Bong Pineda.
Congressman Teves, as early as August 2020, had filed House Bill 7497 granting Visayas Cockers Club a franchise to operate cockpit arenas or studios in the provinces of Negros Oriental, Negros Occidental and Cebu, and to operate off-cockpit betting stations throughout the country. In September 2021, Teves filed a bill that would grant Visayas Cockers Club a franchise for e-sabong. A substitute bill was filed shortly thereafter, identical to the law passed by the House of Representatives that granted Ang's Lucky 8 a 25-year franchise. However, by then some congressmen had become wary about e-sabong and its negative social costs.
Missing sabungeros (cockfighting aficionados) and the growing evidence of the high social cost that came with e-sabong notwithstanding, then-president Rodrigo Duterte allowed e-sabong to continue until less than a week before the 2022 general elections, when he announced the immediate halt to e-sabong operations. The official explanation was a survey conducted by the Department of the Interior and Local Government wherein 62 percent of 8,400 respondents expressed a negative attitude toward e-sabong.
Some time after the president's order, public posts on Facebook advertised that Sabong International PH had become PH Sabong Na Amenic N' Calajoan Cockpit Arena, an unspecified site in Negros Oriental and a cockpit in Talisay City, Negros Occidental, together were to provide round the clock live broadcast of cockfights for bettors' convenience.
Unfortunately for the people behind PH Sabong, e-sabong operators and enthusiasts, e-sabong has been illegal since May 3, 2022. NBI and other law enforcement agencies are mandated to go after prohibited activities and file charges against perpetrators. If indeed the team that raided Amenic N' Calajoan Cockpit Arena last September 16 violated the rights of suspects including stealing from them, the NBI must of course answer for such acts.
