KALIBO, Aklan – In line with the government’s thrust to promote the “No Take Police” on gambling operations all over the country, the Aklan Police Provincial Office (APPO) has intensified its campaign against illegal cockfighting in this province.
Police chief inspector Bernard Ufano, chief of the APPO Intelligence Unit, was given the mandate to have supervisory functions on the province’s campaign against illegal gambling operations.
In a media interview yesterday, Ufano said that out the 17 municipalities in this province, only 14 towns have applied for the renewal of their permits to continue operating cockpit stations in their respective areas.
The municipalities of Ibajay, New Washington, and Banga have not renewed their permits, hence, they have not been into cockfighting operations as of late.
Ufano also added that out of all the towns that been allowed to maintain cockpit operations, only the town of Malay is known to have two cockpit stations, although only one at this time has the legal capacity to operate for business.
“Right now, only the cockpit station in Boracay Island can legally operate since the cockpit station in mainland Malay is still in the process of its renewal,” he said.
Questions, however, are being raised on the presence of two cockpit stations in that said municipality. According to Presidential Decree 449, or the Cockfighting Law of 1974, it specifically mandates that there should be only one cockpit station that has to be established in a town with a population of less than 100,000.
“It is very unique and questionable really why the town of Malay is maintaining two cockpit stations considering that its population can barely meet the needed number,” a resort owner who requested anonymity said.
Based on the data of the National Statistics Office, using the result of the 2015 census of population, the town of Malay, so far, has only a population of 52,973.
Ufano, during the interview, did not categorically answer the question to why Malay town has allowed to operate two cockpit stations but said “I understand the other cockpit station which is based in the mainland Malay is pushing for the renewal of its business permit, but it’s already up to the LGU if they will approve it.”(Radyo Todo)
