EDITORIAL - Cops as kidnappers (Sabong News)
At the height of pandemic lockdowns in April last year, when deaths were spiking and the government was just starting to roll out COVID vaccines, certain members of the Philippine National Police were keeping themselves busy – not with serving as frontliners in enforcing health protocols, but with online cockfighting or e-sabong.
Yesterday the National Bureau of Investigation reported the filing of kidnapping cases against 11 members of the National Capital Region Police Office and four civilians who were caught on surveillance video snatching four sabungeros in Cavite on April 13. The NCRPO members were traced through the license plates of the three vehicles used, which were also recorded on video as the suspects stopped in a restaurant in Tagaytay during which they took off their face masks.
Online cockfighting gained popularity during the pandemic lockdowns, with the bets reportedly running into millions as in physical cockfight games. Suspicions of game rigging, however, bugged e-sabong. The violence and disappearances eventually led to the decision to shut down e-sabong operations.
Since 202, at least 34 cockfight aficionados or sabungeros have been reported kidnapped and remain missing. From the start, suspicion has focused on police involvement, with the violence attributed to rigged cockfights. Several of the enforced disappearances were suspected to be retaliatory attacks by those who lost heavily due to the cheating.
Those facing charges mostly belong to the NCRPO regional drug enforcement unit led by their chief, Col. Ryan Orapa. The indictments reinforce criticisms of the conduct of the brutal war on drugs carried out by the Duterte administration, with over 6,000 people merely suspected to be drug personalities killed by police ostensibly for resisting arrest.
The alleged involvement of NCRPO members in the kidnapping of some of the missing sabungeros also helps explain the apprehension felt by journalists who were visited at home by plainclothes policemen following the recent murder of broadcaster Percy Lapid.
A positive aspect of this story is that the PNP pursued the case and found evidence to nail down 11 of its own members along with civilian accomplices. The next step should be the successful prosecution of the suspects, and the arrest of others responsible for the other disappearances.
