Cockfighting led to a horrible case

[bisdak40]

How did those gamblers and cock owners managed to cheat in something as public as cockfighting anyways?
I don't see how someone could easily trick others, as we are talking about trained animals, after all.
Dos they use some outlawed substance on those animals, so they could outmatch the competition or something?

Also, there is a change their messed around with the spurs of their cocks with nobody noticing it so they had a clear advantage against any other animal during a fight.
Whatever the case, someone caught cheating in cockfighting is not supposed to be murdered immediately because of it, specially without a fair trial. Those are the consequences of doing such things while living in a country where the power is in the hands of the corrupt and the mafias.  

The modus of these cheaters is that they paired battlecocks during a fight, they already know which cock will win and the management of the betting site will notice this as there is a spike in the betting, meaning that during the fight of the "paired cocks" millions of pesos was placed to the supposed to be the winning cock. Hard to explain and also hard to get if you are not into cockfighting. Bottomline, there is cheating on the betting site that leads to these murders.

It is not the government that murdered those cheating cockfighting enthusiasts but suspect is the owner of the company that operates the betting site and of course there are also policemen and a judge involved in this case as alleged.

[LogitechMouse]

---
Anyway, whoever is behind all this should be punished and I hope the victims get the justice they deserve. I do not condone cheating in gambling but is killing really the way? Let us pray for the victims.

The incident happened around 3 years ago if I remembered correctly, and many already have forgotten what happened because the authorities doesn't have any leads on where to start the investigation UNTIL that whistleblower came out and share what he knows.

Of course they will deny it on the other side. Who in the hell will say that "Yes, we did that a few years ago"? I'm not betting on cockfighting despite this sport being in our country for such a long time, but I know that huge bettors like Ang spends huge money on these cockfighting events. They said that these people who got killed cheated on them, and like you, I don't condone them as well, and killing isn't the way. It isn't the way but unfortunately for them, it's the consequences of going against them.

I’ve heard the Philippines has a pretty harsh legal system so I don’t find this all that surprising. However, it is never a good thing when people are murdered, especially by the government. What they were doing was wrong and animal abuse is not cool so I can’t say I’m too broken up about it but two wrongs don’t make a right.

Well, I can also say that it's an animal abuse since they let 2 animals fight for the sake of money however, this has been a tradition in our country, and cockfighting has been happening for such a long time already. I don't want it to happen, but I don't think that there's a way for the government to stop it completely.

[EluguHcman]

I’ve heard the Philippines has a pretty harsh legal system so I don’t find this all that surprising. However, it is never a good thing when people are murdered, especially by the government. What they were doing was wrong and animal abuse is not cool so I can’t say I’m too broken up about it but two wrongs don’t make a right.

I wouldn't say that they have a harsh legal system, on the contrary with all the corruptions in the Philippines, justice could have been delayed and so it means it's been denied specially if the victims here doesn't have a lawyer to pay to defend or pursue the guilty party.

So with all the inequality and jungle justification system that is being exercised in this event, does it not stil seems a harsh regulatory system? And of course it is a legal act which is supported by the government.
And likely you concurred to what @OgNasty has said so there was no need for the subjective at the point of the judgement to say it is not a harsh one. Or would had preferable to you if said "horrible legal system?

Of course the act being legally carried on there is dehumanizing and that just make the system obviously harsh.

As for the animal abuse, it's hard to argue, but it seems that the Philippines is one of those country that allowed cock fighting ever since as it is one of their past time specially in the province. And it has grow so much that this Atong Ang was able to make it online and that's why this people has been kidnapped and killed because they might have been stealing from this criminals syndicate.

The Philippines has seem to adopt the Cockfighting activities like a traditional event. But it has not been fair supposing to be of entertainment rather than the gambling that it has really been pegged on.

[arwin100]

Are these casinos the same thing as a POGO (Philippines Offshore Gambling Operation)? I don't really understand what the difference is, or what a POGO is, but there's always talk of them getting busted.

No po. These casinos are local casinos that has a massive number of Filipino users. While with POGO, their users aren't us but mostly Chinese people from mainland. So it was few years ago when POGOs were banned but the local casinos aren't. The problem with POGOs was that they're also been used to scam us hiding in their operations.

POGO's operation is centered on foreign gamblers. They don't actually operate for Filipino bettors, their costumers are usually based on China to that's why as we could see on media reports the person got hostage or beaten are mostly Chinese nationals to. The problem big problem is they are been engaging on human rights violation and scamming that's the reason government they should not operate also good that they choose to ban POGO operation in Philippines.

What's bad or concerning is they still allow local online gambling operators to operate their crazy business with misleading marketing tactics to attract lots of people to gamble on their platform. If government would just regulate them well and eliminate their biases for sure that everything will be fine towards this industry in Philippines.

Really interesting that there is a 50 million PHP bounty on the head of the informant, which is suspected to be issued by corrupt police officers in the National Capitol Region (per what I read in the articles linked in the OP). That's a lot of dough, almost $1M USD. Hopefully the informant is being kept in tight security. I imagine he would have to supply some kind of evidence / testimony that can be corroborated with others. His life will never be the same, having to look over his shoulder for the rest of his days... Scary.

It's not just his life but also his family's safety is included here. He's a guy that's been with Ang for a very long time and now that he's exposed him, he's really made Ang angry and that's why there's a bounty on him. Ang said that he's been treated like a brother to him and now he betrayed him. Very scary indeed and even the reporter, Emil Sumangil that interviewed the informant. His wife posted and asked for prayers for his safety as well.

Indeed he's life is totally in huge danger for exposing this anomalies that's why its not surprising to know if there's really a bounty for his head since he's hitting a big rock which is for long time hard to crack by anyone. So let see if they can see the bones of the affected gamblers in this case since if it happen that they locate all the bones then match it with DNA then this is huge case solve and this is huge achievement for investigating bodies for solving this long time issue.

[qwertyup23]

I have been closely following this news for a while and I do think that gambling has really evolved into something far more evil that we could have imagined. Given that different forms of gambling involve huge amounts of cash, it is inevitable that people would succumb to greed, thereby increasing the chances of criminal activities around the country.

Following the news in the Philippines, a whistleblower revealed all of the alleged suspects. The question is- is he really telling the truth? We all know that the suspects he mentioned are famous gamblers in the country. There may be some truth to his words and the government is now deploying scuba divers to look for the remains of the slain victims.

How did those gamblers and cock owners managed to cheat in something as public as cockfighting anyways?
I don't see how someone could easily trick others, as we are talking about trained animals, after all.
Dos they use some outlawed substance on those animals, so they could outmatch the competition or something?

I suppose they tried to cheat during betting or pay-outs. I dont think such illegal gambling well organized, they had records for bets and etc. So if you lie about bet you have made, not always of quickly it can be checked. And sometimes when you look on a rooster that participate there, they look like mutants, maybe its even possible to replace rooster with other "bird" that look like rooster. I have googled and Red Junglefow look like rooster, but smaller and weaker, definitely an underdog.

Who knows if they really cheated? Again we are talking about bets here. Probably the victim won fair and square but the suspects do not want to lose their waged cash. They chose the easier route- which is to slay these poor victims in the process.

[nutildah]

The modus of these cheaters is that they paired battlecocks during a fight, they already know which cock will win and the management of the betting site will notice this as there is a spike in the betting, meaning that during the fight of the "paired cocks" millions of pesos was placed to the supposed to be the winning cock. Hard to explain and also hard to get if you are not into cockfighting.

So the odds are supposed to be even for all fights? That would explain why they can't shift the odds to offset the incoming bets.

I've never actually bet on a cockfight but I remember seeing "e-sabong" as its own section tucked away on a few different gambling apps, like they are trying to hide that its part of the app; usually you just pick Red or Blue and hope for the best... about as random as a coin flip, or so it seems...

[alani123]

The Philippines is such a wild country. Political corruption runs so deep, while the big parties try to kill of each others leader still local sdminsitrtions loyal to either big party allow such shit to go on...

While each party claims to be against corruption, on the local level poverty is rampant and nothing seems to progress. The Philippines seems to have become the world's center for labour rights abuses, worldwide conglomerates open their customer support branches to Philippine outsourcers who pay very low salaries and take advantage of the country's good English language education. It's all a scheme to take advantage of local youths as much as possible while politicians enrich themselves.

Likewise with the gambling schemes that go on in the country with the tolerance of authorities while they abuse animals.

[bhadz]

It's not just his life but also his family's safety is included here. He's a guy that's been with Ang for a very long time and now that he's exposed him, he's really made Ang angry and that's why there's a bounty on him. Ang said that he's been treated like a brother to him and now he betrayed him. Very scary indeed and even the reporter, Emil Sumangil that interviewed the informant. His wife posted and asked for prayers for his safety as well.

Indeed he's life is totally in huge danger for exposing this anomalies that's why its not surprising to know if there's really a bounty for his head since he's hitting a big rock which is for long time hard to crack by anyone. So let see if they can see the bones of the affected gamblers in this case since if it happen that they locate all the bones then match it with DNA then this is huge case solve and this is huge achievement for investigating bodies for solving this long time issue.

There were bones that were found in the Taal lake and it's reported. I just watched the video[1] of the report but, they'll still need to test it if it belongs to the victims or if they're real human bones.

[1] Sako ng mga buto, narekober sa gilid ng Taal Lake ng mga naghahanap sa missing sabungeros | 24 Oras
or if translated "Sacks of bones, recovered in the side of Taal lake by the rescue team of the missing cockfight bettors.

The Philippines is such a wild country. Political corruption runs so deep, while the big parties try to kill of each others leader still local sdminsitrtions loyal to either big party allow such shit to go on...

Totally wild, we love this country but the government is such a mess. I can't complain more, the world knows our situation and with this issue, it also involves huge names not in the politics. But, the mastermind is very likely is backed by one powerful politician that's likely untouchable due to connections and money.

[Muba20]

If this has not been brought up here, I will do it. In the Philippines, this news is what everyone is talking about. Several gamblers were abducted and have been missing since. It has been only revealed that those missing gamblers were really killed after they were caught cheating in cockfighting.

In any case, cheating is definitely a crime. If someone commits such a crime, then he should be punished. But I will never support killing. They could have caught him and given him a severe punishment. Then they would have lived but later they would not have committed the crime but when they were killed it became a more heinous crime. The victim was cheater now the police are the criminals. Moreover, if the decision to stop such crimes is taken by killing the criminal, I do not think it will be considered logical. The laws of some countries can be very strict, those who dare to commit such crimes should definitely know about the laws of their country. But it is necessary to know what really happened there. Many times there are many issues behind an incident that do not come out in the media.

[madnessteat]

This case for me is very complicated. Though the whistleblower already came out and told authorities what he knew but i doubt that this case will stand in court as he has no solid evidence, all he had is "hearsay". Though i believed that he was saying the truth but in our court , saying the truth is not enough but should have a solid evidence to pin down those who committed the crime.

This case occurred in 2021 and this year the case has resurfaced because of the confession from Patidongan who is the head of security for the e-sabong operator, which is enough to prove that there has indeed been a murder and we should be grateful because justice still exists for the victims. Indeed, if brought to court it will not be enough to reveal who the mastermind behind this cruelty is because of the lack of evidence, but I heard that the victims were dumped in Taal Lake, if law enforcement can collect evidence there then I think there is still hope. Hopefully cruelty like this will not happen again.

As far as I know, gambling fraud is always punished very severely in many countries. Therefore, I am not at all surprised by this incident.

I don't know who to believe in this situation, as the Philippines is a very corrupt country where everyone acts in their own interests. Therefore, it is quite possible to assume that these murders are simply being disguised as fraud. In reality, it may be a redistribution of spheres of influence related to cockfighting.

[Hispo]

Who knows if they really cheated? Again we are talking about bets here. Probably the victim won fair and square but the suspects do not want to lose their waged cash. They chose the easier route- which is to slay these poor victims in the process.

Perhaps the murderers believed to have noticed something off, like their victims being very lucky with their bets and winning money consistently, it could have been something fishy going on, but realistically there is also the possibility of those people who were killed just having enough luck to get consecutively winnings with those animals they betted on.
Whatever the case, it is very disturbing there are some cases in which one could get killed because one is being luck and there are criminals among the public who are willing to end our life, without having any evidence of any wrongdoing.

Anyways, one could just hope for those criminals to get prosecuted and eventually get justice served for the families of those victims.

[bisdak40]

The modus of these cheaters is that they paired battlecocks during a fight, they already know which cock will win and the management of the betting site will notice this as there is a spike in the betting, meaning that during the fight of the "paired cocks" millions of pesos was placed to the supposed to be the winning cock. Hard to explain and also hard to get if you are not into cockfighting.

So the odds are supposed to be even for all fights? That would explain why they can't shift the odds to offset the incoming bets.

I've never actually bet on a cockfight but I remember seeing "e-sabong" as its own section tucked away on a few different gambling apps, like they are trying to hide that its part of the app; usually you just pick Red or Blue and hope for the best... about as random as a coin flip, or so it seems...

All the odds in e-sabong are not even because the owner of the betting website takes a percentage. You are right, in e-sabong they use red and blue as the colors. The cheaters, if they want the blue to win, will bet on it. Even if the odds are only 1.5, if you bet 10 million pesos, you will get back 15 million pesos, which is a lot of money in the Philippines.

Cockfighting is as random as a coin flip if you are not familiar with the type of rooster. When you watch it on the monitor, they look the same. One way cheaters make the rooster they want to win is by putting a dull blade on the losing rooster, which the management of the betting website won't notice.

There is a lot of cheating in cockfighting, so if you are caught cheating, your life is in danger, but I do not agree with what they do to the cheating sabungeros.

[cryptoaddictchie]

Anyway, whoever is behind all this should be punished and I hope the victims get the justice they deserve. I do not condone cheating in gambling but is killing really the way? Let us pray for the victims.

Gambling is the worse in country like Philippines since most hype games like cockfight betting have been handled by Rich Oligarchs which can solely control whats the best on the betting. Those players gone missing didnt do good for cheating but it not doesn't mean they deserved to die a horrible death.. Now this news are trending in the Philippines, but I bet the gambling suspect for this will not be punish due to the influence he have.

[Julien_Olynpic]

It is always necessary to move to more civilized and safe forms of gambling. Spontaneously organized cockfights with unregulated rules are really dangerous. I do not condone fraud in gambling, but the punishment is excessive and most importantly, why is this regulation not carried out by the government or an authorized state institution or a licensed private one? Where the state is powerless, arbitrariness always begins. And arbitrariness always leads to cases like the one described in the start post. Human life is priceless and it should not depend on chance. I think the government needs to take urgent measures and introduce gambling regulation. And cockfights should be banned.

[TravelMug]

As for the latest news on this case,

A sack containing bones was recovered by authorities on Thursday amid efforts to locate the missing sabungeros or cockfighting enthusiasts in Taal Lake.

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/nation/952194/sack-containing-bones-recovered-during-search-ops-in-taal-lake/story/

So indeed the whistle blower might be telling the truth that the bodies were disposed in Taal Lake and now the Philipine Coast Guard might have found the bodies and bones of some of this missing "sabungeros". And it's very hard for this families to see their love ones die this way, maybe they were tortured first before being killed. And again, just like the majority here, we could only wish justice for this individuals and the person behind this should be put into trial and be meted with sentences for this heinous crimes. And for the whistle blower, it's a life and death situation for him as he revealed that there is a 50 million pesos bounty on his head. So our government should protect him at all cost.

[Shinpako09]

It is always necessary to move to more civilized and safe forms of gambling. Spontaneously organized cockfights with unregulated rules are really dangerous. I do not condone fraud in gambling, but the punishment is excessive and most importantly, why is this regulation not carried out by the government or an authorized state institution or a licensed private one? Where the state is powerless, arbitrariness always begins. And arbitrariness always leads to cases like the one described in the start post. Human life is priceless and it should not depend on chance. I think the government needs to take urgent measures and introduce gambling regulation. And cockfights should be banned.

They can't ban it just because of this one incident. That’s not the only cockfighting arena in the PH, there are many across different provinces. Unless the majority of these arenas are involved in the same issue, it won’t be banned. Cockfighting is part of Filipino culture, it’s deeply rooted, which is why it’s legal. What can we do? This is the Philippines. Whether we like it or not, this is sometimes how things are handled here. If not for the whistleblower, this case wouldn’t have progressed and would’ve remained unsolved.

[harapan]

Anyway, whoever is behind all this should be punished and I hope the victims get the justice they deserve. I do not condone cheating in gambling but is killing really the way? Let us pray for the victims.

So due to cheating in cockfighting that's why the gamblers are abducted and later killed,this is so disheartening honestly why is humans taking laws into their hands.meanwhile cheating can be found anywhere but there can be a punishment for it rather than taken the people's lives. I'm seeing reason with why gambling should be ban in some countries to limits such crime case and illegal acts.

[yhiaali3]

This is truly a tragic story. I feel sorry for the families of these victims whose loved ones were killed simply over a crazy gambling game. It is painful to see the deplorable moral state to which a human being can descend just for a few dollars.

Is it reasonable that 100 people were murdered over a gambling game? Even if they were caught publicly, this is an absolutely inhumane punishment that demonstrates the brutality of these murderers who lack any human conscience.

I hope the truth about those involved is revealed and they are punished with the most severe penalty, even if they are the highest-ranking officials in the country.

[joeperry]

Yes I've been following and reading this on Reddit and not only the suspect is a Billionaire but along with that a lot of high ranking policemen and other people that is related to government are related. There's a lot of influential people behind this case and we don't know what will be the ending, will the justice be served or people with money will stay strong, anyway it's true that they can just put those people who cheats in prison since they are powerful enough to do it but I think the reason is they might repeat it or if they let them put to jail there will be a trial and it would likely consume time to prove that they really cheat so disposing those players are way more easier.

[len01]

That’s truly brutal, it shouldn’t have happened. It just shows how bad physical gambling has become lately, with more and more cases involving violence and even murder. In my country, we had a similar incident where a police officer was shot and killed at a cockfighting venue. On one hand, it’s difficult to completely stop this kind of thing, because bookies will always find ways to protect their profits. But resorting to murder is absolutely unacceptable and should be dealt with by law.

This is exactly why many gamblers today prefer online gambling, where they can stay anonymous and avoid the serious risks that often come with physical gambling.