ILOILO – Despite the ban on cockfighting activities in this province, the Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO) still arrested 30 persons in just one week.
These suspects were caught between March 29 and April 4 in different towns here, according to Police Colonel Gilbert Gorero, IPPO director.
Bets amounting to P27,522 were confiscated in separate police operations in the towns of Oton, San Joaquin, Maasin, Barotac Viejo, Estancia, Concepcion, Lemery, and Sara.
IPPO’s latest operation in Barangay Torocadan, San Joaquin led to the arrest of Police Staff Sergeant Jose Decabo-on of Barangay Nam-o Norte, Miag-ao, Iloilo.
Decabo-on – assigned in the Police Regional Office 6’s Regional Personnel Holding and Accounting Unit – was detained in the lockup cell of the San Joaquin police station with four other companions.
“The numerous apprehensions of the IPPO were a manifestation that we’re not tolerating this act here. We will continue to conduct operations and arrest even government forces,” Gorero stressed.
The top cop said he will not create a separate taskforce against “hard-headed” individuals rather he would “sustain and intensify our law enforcement operations against all forms of criminality, particularly the violation of Presidential Decree 449 (Cockfighting Law of 1974).”
“We appeal to all barangay officials to immediately report to us any case of illegal cockfighting or locally known as tupada/pauwak in their area,” Gorero added./PN
