President Rodrigo Duterte has rejected calls to suspend the operations of e-sabong (online cockfighting).
In his prerecorded Talk to the People aired Wednesday morning, Duterte said the government will suffer big revenue losses in the event that he heeds the proposal to temporarily halt e-sabong operations.
“This is what I will tell the senators: The government’s interest there is the money. That is all there is to it actually,” Duterte said.
The President made the remarks, as he acknowledged the Congress’ “strong clamor” to suspend e-sabong operations.
Calls for the suspension of the multibillion cockfighting industry have mounted following a series of alleged abductions and disappearances of aficionados over the past few months.
Twenty-three senators have signed Resolution 996 urging the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) to suspend the license to operate of e-sabong operators and immediately stop all related activities until the cases of 31 missing cockfighting aficionados are resolved.
Duterte recalled that he once “hated” gambling, but had to allow its operation because it is “good” since the government is benefitting from it.
Duterte then told the lawmakers to respect his decision to allow the continued operations of e-sabong because the government is “short of money”.
The government was able to collect around PHP3.69 billion from gaming operations of eight e-sabong licensees from April to December 2021, Pagcor chair Andrea Domingo told Duterte.
From January to March 15, 2022, there was a collection of around PHP1.37 billion from the operations of seven licensees, Domingo added.
Domingo said two of eight e-sabong operators have already been suspended following their failure to comply with their “financial obligations.”
Law enforcers to solve case of missing aficionados
Concerning the case of missing aficionados, Duterte said he would let the law enforcement agencies act on the issue.
Duterte issued the statement, as he raised the possibility that some of the missing cockfight aficionados are involved in “widespread game-fixing.”
“I’m sad that they went missing. I don’t know. I really do not know. Maybe because there’s really widespread game fixing. If there’s no reason, why would they go missing? The number of people missing is too high,” he said.
Duterte, nevertheless, expressed confidence that law enforcers would be able to resolve the cases of the missing individuals.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año told Duterte that at least eight suspects have already been identified.
“Once we are able to gather evidence, we will ask for the court’s help. Once the warrants are issued, we will immediately look for the suspects to shed light on these incidents and bring those responsible to justice,” he said. (PNA)
