By Jennifer P. Rendon
The Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) said it will heighten its campaign against illegal cockfighting.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Gilbert Gorero, PRO-6 spokesperson, said they did not waver in their campaign against illegal gambling, despite their duties relative to COVID-19 protocols implementation.
“That’s the reason why we made several arrests lately, particularly during weekends on illegal cockfighting,” he said.
Pre-COVID time, cockfighting could either be legal or illegal.
Legal cockfights are usually held in cockpits every week, while the illegal ones also called tupada, are held in secluded cockpits to avoid authorities.
But in the advent of COVID-19, several local government units (LGUs) temporarily prohibited cockfighting citing that it’s also a form of social gathering where physical distancing is hard to observe.
Cockfighting is still prohibited in Iloilo City amid the Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ).
Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas has opted to ban the activity despite reports that several areas have allowed cockfighting.
“We are not allowing any cockfighting until we have issued an executive order solely for this. No cockfighting allowed in the meantime,” he said.
Iloilo Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. has issued Executive Order No. 128-A, which also prohibits any cockfighting activities in the province.
The prohibition was based on Resolution No. 43 of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, which was issued on June 3, 2020, and an Advisory by the Department of Interior and Local Government issued on June 5.
PRO-6 records showed that police in the region conducted 69 operations for violation of Presidential Decree 449 (Cockfighting Law of 1974) from March 15, the start of the community quarantine, until June 5.
Twenty-one of these operations are in Negros Occidental; 12 each in Aklan and Antique; 7 operations in Iloilo City; 5 in Iloilo province; and 2 each in Capiz and Guimaras.
These series of operations resulted in the arrest of 247 persons and confiscation of P70,454 cash bets.
