NOT EVEN A total ban seemed enough to stop a lucrative business embarking on an online cockfight betting scheme that even kids could access via mobile phone with an internet connection.
Referred to as e-sabong, the online cockfighting scheme continues to operate in parts of the country, says Senator Raffy Tulfo during a joint hearing of the Senate Committee on Games and Amusement.
To prove his claim, Tulfo presented real-time livestream footage of an ongoing e-sabong match during the hearing, demonstrating that online betting on cockfights remains accessible to the public. Committee members in attendance were stunned.
E-sabong operations were ordered suspended in 2022 amid mounting concerns over criminal activities linked to the industry, including the infamous “missing sabungeros.”
DISAPPEARING ACT
Aside from Tulfo, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian also showed an active e-sabong website. He however wasn’t able to gain access to the website that “may have been gone” after news broke out about the senate inquiry.
“It was active yesterday,” Gatchalian said. He suspected that its operators may have temporarily shut down or “migrated” the platform in anticipation of the senate investigation.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) has yet to issue a statement regarding the supposed resurgence of e-sabong operations.
SHIELDED BY COPS
For the longest time, ranking police officials have been accused of protecting illegal gambling operators in exchange of “weekly dole-outs.”
Tulfo, a hard-hitting broadcaster who exposed the scheme, took a swipe at the PNP’s failure to dismantle the illegal operations despite being visible on social media.
“Why are they not being stopped and arrested when law enforcement agencies know about these activities?” Tulfo asked, in reference to the livestreamed e-sabong match which he claimed is linked to a gambling kingpin based in Central Luzon.
PINEDA AND BERNOS
Tulfo went as far as dragging prominent surnames of individuals he claimed are behind illegal e-sabong operations in several regions.
Among those whom he claimed have been raking in huge in the illegal e-sabong scheme is a certain “Pineda” operating in Regions III (Central Luzon) and Region IV (Calabarzon).
Also tagged in the illegal e-sabong is a person named “Bernos” who is allegedly in control of e-sabong operations in Abra province in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).
INCUMBENT SOLON
In Manila, a sitting legislator on one of the the six congressional districts in the city is also being tagged as an e-sabong operator.
According to an Insider, the congressman, whom he declined to identify for fear of reprisal, has been lording over illegal gambling business in Manila.
When pressed to provide more hints, he said: “Gamit ang cellphone, madalas nyo yan makikitang nagmomonitor ng mga takpakan habang may sesyon ang Kongreso.”
