THE SAGA BEGINS with the many disappearing cockfight afficionados in various provinces way back in 2021. The total number of missing sabungeros by July 2025, as monitored by the press reached 34 (Inquirer). The families of the missing cockfighting enthusiasts reported their concerns to the PNP and other enforcement agencies, as soon as they learned about their relatives’ disappearances.
But what happened?
The aggrieved families gravely worried about the fate of their missing loved ones. Concerned, too, were the people who read or heard the breaking news. They wondered what the PNP generals and officials were doing about the missing persons.
Many citizens were alarmed and naturally expected their mayors, other public officials, and law enforcement agencies, given their mandate to serve the people, to immediately take action about the mysterious disappearance of so many sabungeros.
‘Why did it take a whistleblower to start an honest-to-goodness search for the truth and justice regarding the many missing Filipinos? … given this sad saga of the sabungeros, when will the Filipino people feel safe from criminals.’
EX-CLOSE AIDE
Suddenly, in mid-July 2025, a whistleblower, alyas “Totoy,” came out on TV, claiming that gambling tycoon Charlie “Atong” Ang and actress, Gretchen Barretto, and a number of retired and active PNP officials were responsible for the disappearance of the sabungeros. He claimed that the missing sabungeros were abducted and strangled to death by a cabal of policemen before their bodies were dumped in Taal Lake in 2021 and 2022.
“Totoy” eventually came out in the open, identifying himself as Julie “Dondon” Patidongan, (former) close aide of Atong Ang. He decided to be a whistleblower on the case, noting threats against his family. In his administrative complaint filed with the National Police Commission (Napolcom) on July 14, he named 18 active and dismissed policemen as involved in the case.
He identified two of them as Police Col. Jacinto Malinao Jr. and Lt. Col. Ryan Jay Orapa. He said, “They were the individuals tasked to kill people during the war on drugs before. That’s it.”
CONTRACTUAL KILLINGS
In a talk with reporters, Patidongan also tagged retired Police Lt. Gen. Jonnel Estomo as involved in the case, claiming “He was one of the people who urged Mr. Atong Ang to have me killed.”
In a live-streamed TV, in the presence of Napolcom Vice Chairperson and Executive Officer Rafael Calinisan and the family representatives of the victims, Patidongan confirmed what he already narrated in talks with reporters.
DOJ secretary Crispin Remulla, who monitored the situation as divulged by Patidongan said, “The people who undertake the contractual killings may intersect somehow with the drug war and with the ‘e-sabong.’ There are people involved in killing during the drug war and in e-sabong. That’s as far as we can trace right now, but we will have to establish clearer links to each other.”
IT TOOK SO LONG
The big question that is disturbing and truly alarming to all Filipinos of goodwill, particularly on peace and order, and justice, is: “Why did it take so long, more than 4 years, for the PNP, and the DOJ and other government law enforcement agencies to start looking seriously at the legitimate concern of the families of the missing sabungeros?
Why did it take a whistleblower to start an honest-to-goodness search for the truth and justice regarding the many missing Filipinos?
People cannot help thinking that the PNP, DOJ and the current Marcos-Duterte administration and its related justice-implementing arms have been sleeping on the job, or perhaps even deliberately delaying the investigation of the case.
Or, is this current administration unashamedly still enamored with the “Kill Kill Kill” policy of the murderer now detained in the ICC detention center in the Hague?
In a nutshell, given this sad saga of the sabungeros, when will the Filipino people feel safe from criminals, under this Bongbong Marcos-Sara Duterte leadership?