‘Sabungeros’ were killed just like that
TO be honest, I was shocked after just a few minutes researching the allegations against Charlie Tiu Hay Sy — widely known as Atong Ang — regarding the 2021–2022 killing of at least 34 “sabungeros” (cockfight enthusiasts) suspected of cheating in cockfights that were part of his “e-sabong” business, which expanded this traditional game into an online betting system.
This event reveals just how sick our society has become, how bereft of morality our elites are, and how rotten to the core the nation now seems. How and why did our political elite and law enforcers bury this horrific crime for three years — a crime on the scale of the Maguindanao massacre, which left 58 people dead, including 32 journalists?
A full-blown Senate investigation was launched in May last year. Yet it hasn’t even made its findings public, and this massacre was on its way to being forgotten, if not for the sudden emergence of a whistleblower who claimed that Ang ordered the killings and, of course, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla’s public announcement that his department will leave no stone unturned in investigating it.
The alleged whistleblower claimed that the credibility of Ang’s e-sabong enterprise as a reliable gambling activity was being undermined by rampant cheating. In e-sabong, a sabungero is the individual who owns and deploys his rooster for matches. These matches are streamed online live, with organizers taking electronic bets on which rooster would win and paying out to the winners.
From photos posted by grieving mothers and wives, the murdered men were mostly in their 30s and 40s — at the prime of their lives and presumably breadwinners for their families. Most came from poor or lower-class backgrounds and killed in Laguna, Batangas, Bulacan and Manila, where the e-sabong matches were held. They couldn’t have imagined they’d be killed: only “big people” get killed in the cockfighting business, when they double-cross a partner in some way.
Why didn’t the media, the police or even Congress pursue this crime as they did with the Maguindanao massacre? The silence and inaction are a colossal condemnation of our society and government, which has become so vulnerable to big money.
Lord
Ang has long been known as the country’s gambling lord — outside casinos, that is. He already ran “jueteng” (the illegal numbers game) operations in Nueva Vizcaya and Isabela in the 1980s. He was catapulted to become the country’s biggest jueteng operator when then-president Joseph Estrada, after assuming office in 1998, gave him the authority to run the game on a national scale, disguised as the Bingo-2 Ball games authorized by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor). Ironically, this led to Estrada’s downfall, as it angered a powerful ally, Luis “Chavit” Singson, when Ang designated Singson’s political enemy to run jueteng in the governor’s home province of Ilocos Sur.
While Ang continued his jueteng operations under the PCSO’s Small Town Lottery program authorized by then-president Benigno Aquino III, he had the foresight to harness internet technology and launched his e-sabong operations in May 2021, convincing Pagcor to issue licenses for online cockfighting platforms. His company, Lucky 8 Star Quest Inc., quickly became the dominant player, operating the popular Pitmasters Live e-sabong platform.
By early 2022, Ang disclosed in Senate hearings that his firm was handling up to P60 billion in bets per month and earning about P3 billion in gross monthly income from e-sabong commissions. Clearly, lawmakers were salivating for a cut of this huge business: the House of Representatives passed a bill — with 121 voting for and only two objecting — in September 2021, granting Ang’s firm a 25-year franchise for online cockfighting broadcasts. This, however, did not pass the Senate.
Then-president Rodrigo Duterte, however, suspended e-sabong operations in May 2022. While the disappearance of at least 34 sabungeros was a major controversy that increased public and political pressure, Duterte’s official statements emphasized the broader adverse social impact as the decisive factor. His successor, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., issued Executive Order 9 on Dec. 28, 2022, explicitly directing the continued suspension of all e-sabong operations nationwide.
Pagcor
However, Pagcor Chairman Alejandro Tengco candidly admitted in 2024 Senate hearings that, “despite the ban that was made … e-sabong continues to proliferate.” He said these operations were now unregulated and the government was “not getting a centavo” from them.
E-sabong persisted after the ban because of its huge profits, the ease of operating online and — allegedly — the large bribes given to police and politicians to look the other way. After all, Ang boasted in Senate hearings that e-sabong bets at its peak totaled P60 billion monthly. That’s more than, for instance, the most popular fast-food chain Jollibee’s P23 billion in monthly revenues. The actual cockfight could even be staged in a distant arena, easily secured by a cooperating mayor, governor or police chief, with events broadcast nationwide in real time.
Despite the ban, e-sabong has continued, allegedly dominated by Ang’s Lucky 8 Star Quest. The other major operator, according to several media reports, had been Pampanga political kingpin and former jueteng lord Rodolfo “Bong” Pineda through his Belvedere Corp. — one of only two companies granted legal licenses by Pagcor to operate e-sabong when the industry was first regulated in 2021.
However, Pineda’s son, Pampanga Gov. Dennis Pineda, ordered e-sabong stopped in his province on May 4, 2022, following Duterte’s national directive. There have been no reports of Pineda continuing his e-sabong operations in the province, although only someone who witnesses such a game there could say for sure if it still exists.
In e-sabong, cockfights are held in cockpit arenas and filmed live using multiple cameras — often with at least four closed-circuit television (CCTV) units per arena for coverage and security. The live video feed is broadcast in real time through e-sabong platforms, accessible via websites or mobile apps. Users register for accounts, deposit funds through various electronic payment methods, and place wagers on the outcome — usually “Meron” (the favored cock), “Wala” (the underdog) or “Draw.” The pari-mutuel system pools all bets of the same type, and winners share the pool, minus the operator’s commission.
Brilliant
E-sabong certainly appears to be a brilliant invention, merging Filipinos’ centuries-old fondness for sabong with internet technology, perhaps inspired by Ang’s observation of Chinese overseas gambling operations. Unlike jueteng, whose results are merely announced, e-sabong provides the bettor with the excitement of viewing the fight itself that will determine if he won the bet.
However, the alleged whistleblower, Julie “Dondon” Patidongan — a key figure in Ang’s e-sabong operations — claimed the sabungeros were killed after being identified as cheaters in e-sabong matches by Ang’s men, although the actual deed was done by bribed policemen who disposed of the corpses, a number of which were thrown into Taal Lake. They were suspected of cheating in the e-sabong cockfights by manipulating outcomes for betting advantage. This is done by fielding a weaker rooster against a stronger one, or by deliberately sabotaging one’s own rooster, then placing large bets on the expected winner (the opponent).
Patidongan claimed the e-sabong boom would have been derailed by these cheaters, as they would have destroyed the game’s credibility and turned off thousands of potential players. The whistleblower alleged that Ang didn’t want that problem and had these cheaters taken straight from the cockpit, killed by his goons and corrupt policemen, and their corpses thrown into Taal Lake or buried elsewhere. Bodies were even gutted so their intestines and other organs would spill out, preventing them from floating.
Ang has vehemently denied Patidongan’s allegations, claiming this was retaliation for his refusal to pay Patidongan P300 million when he wanted to retire from the business. Patidongan, on the other hand, said he went to Justice Secretary Remulla and volunteered to be a state witness when he learned of a supposed plan by Ang to kill not just him but his family, worried that his former minion would indeed expose the massacre.
But here’s the rub: If Ang didn’t order the sabungeros killed in the course of nine months from April 2021 to January 2022, then who did? There were at least 34 murdered, suggesting the order could have come only from someone high up in the pecking order, and for some very important reason. If the killings had nothing to do with efforts to make e-sabong credible and attract hundreds of thousands of players, then what could have been the motivation?
And of course, such killings reveal why it has usually been criminal gangs — like the Mafia or the Yakuza — that have profited most from gambling, whether in casinos, illegal numbers games, horse racing or even boxing matches. The operators of such businesses need to be ruthless, to the point of killing many people, to ensure the games aren’t fixed so it would have the credibility to attract hundreds of thousands of bettors.
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‘Sabungeros’ were killed just like that
Source: Breaking News PH
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