By Alex P. Vidal
“Gambling: The sure way of getting nothing for something.”—Wilson Mizner
IT’S a shame that our legislatures in the city and province of Iloilo have prioritized “on-line sabong” or on-line cockfighting while people are dying, sick, and losing their livelihood amid the pandemic.
On important subject matters that required their vigilance, cooperation, and patriotic duty as elected officials, they were dead silent, negligent and downright apathetic.
Promoters of cockfighting and their backers in government always have bundles of outrageous justifications to make in order to “legitimize” and sugar-coat their knavish activities.
In fact, it is a case of “it takes two to tango.”
I’ll scratch your back, you scratch mine in return.
The first elected official involved in the “urgent” or “necessary” passage of a resolution or ordinance of any on-line cockfighting who will deny our assertion is a hypocrite.
There are many urgent matters to tackle in our legislative branches that would in one way or the other help minimize the sufferings of the people and their community while the Covid-19 vaccines are still on process of helping eliminate the virus.
Is cockfighting a matter of life and death?
Should gambling be given a priority?
“On line” or “off line”, cockfighting is gambling per se.
Besides being cruel to animals, cockfighting is closely connected to other crimes such as drugs and acts of violence.
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And gambling is immoral.
It has destroyed so many people and shattered families.
We don’t need to engage in a long debate to prove this hypothesis which can always be proven by empirical and historical evidence.
We know of a good father and husband from a respected political family in Janiuay, Iloilo, who now lives like a bum or a beggar and homeless person after being abandoned by his wife and children, who could no longer stomach his madness and addiction to cockfighting.
Aside from neglecting the primary needs of his family, he also emptied the family savings and sold their property—only to altogether squander them in cockfighting.
Cockfighting remains to be illegal in every state here in the United States.
Most states specifically prohibit anyone from being a spectator at a cockfight.
But in the community where I live, some Pinoy cockfighting habitues reportedly hold cockfighting in clandestine areas via on-line, or via livestream from their contacts in the Philippines.
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I personally know a lot of those hooked on cockfighting and other gambling activities in the U.S. who have been kicked out by their wives literally from their apartments.
They lost both their wives and money.
Forty two states have passed felony cockfighting laws as of 2020. The federal Animal Welfare Act also prohibits the interstate transport of any animal that is to be used in an animal fighting venture.
While it is true that cockfighting has been practiced for centuries in various countries, including the Philippines and the United States, “old” does not necessarily mean right or even acceptable.
At one time the United States allowed slavery, lacked child abuse laws, and refused women the right to vote.
Human Society has recorded that thousands of dollars can exchange hands as spectators and animal owners wager large sums on their favorite birds.
The owners of birds who win the most fights in a derby (a series of cockfights) may win tens of thousands of dollars of presumably unreported income.
Firearms and other weapons are common at cockfights, mainly because of the large amounts of cash present.
In addition, cockfighting has reportedly been connected to other kinds of violence: newspaper reports of cockfighting-related homicide are not uncommon.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)
