{"id":5352,"date":"2025-08-20T19:19:37","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T19:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/cockfighting-livestreams-thrive-in-philippines-despite-ban-murders\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T19:19:37","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T19:19:37","slug":"cockfighting-livestreams-thrive-in-philippines-despite-ban-murders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/cockfighting-livestreams-thrive-in-philippines-despite-ban-murders\/","title":{"rendered":"Cockfighting livestreams thrive in Philippines despite ban, murders"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tMANILA: Divers have spent more than a month searching a lake south of Manila for the bodies of men with links to the Philippines’ bloody national obsession: cockfighting.<\/p>\n

\n\tThey were murdered by rogue police, a government witness said, allegedly for rigging matches at the height of the country’s pandemic-era craze for betting on live-streamed cockfights, or “e-sabong.”<\/p>\n

\n\tThe disappearances led then President Rodrigo Duterte to announce a total ban, but three years later, the e-sabong industry is still thriving.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn a recent Saturday in the Manila suburb Bulacan, cockfighters, or “sabungeros,” cracked grim jokes about their missing compatriots.<\/p>\n

\n\tInside the “tarian,” a crowded room where blades are attached to each bird’s leg, sabungero Marcelo Parang insisted the murders had nothing to do with the legal cockfighting world.<\/p>\n

\n\t“We don’t know if (the men killed) did something bad,” said the 60-year-old.<\/p>\n

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\n\t“We’re not scared … In here, we’re peaceful. In here, the matches are held fairly,” he said of the deadly contests.<\/p>\n

\n\tOutside, the crowd in the 800-seat arena roared as another bout ended with the losing rooster unceremoniously dumped in an empty paint bucket.<\/p>\n

\n\tCockpits like the one in Bulacan were once a second home for Ray Gibraltar, who grew up in a family of cockfight enthusiasts. One uncle was a breeder.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen the fights moved online during the COVID-19 pandemic, the former director-turned-painter began wagering on them as well.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the easy access, anonymity of the online world, and sheer volume of betting sites can lead to e-sabong addiction, and within a year, Gibraltar was winning and losing upwards of $15,000 a day.<\/p>\n

\n\t“I wasn’t eating. I was just drinking coffee and smoking … I had no sleep,” he said of a three-day session.<\/p>\n

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\n\t“In terms of money that I lost on e-sabong … I could have bought a house and car,” he said, adding he “borrowed money from everyone.”<\/p>\n

\n\tBefore checking into rehab, he wagered the last 300 pesos in his e-wallet.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe story is a familiar one for Reagan Praferosa, founder of Recovering Gamblers of the Philippines, who said few clients show up before hitting rock bottom.<\/p>\n

\n\t“They won’t call us if they still have money,” he said.<\/p>\n

\n\tHis first e-sabong addicts began arriving in 2020. Since then, about 30 percent of his caseload has revolved around the livestreamed fights.<\/p>\n

\n\t“(At arenas) you had to go somewhere to cash out. Now … it’s connected to an e-wallet,” he said, adding other forms of gambling were now taking their cues from e-sabong.<\/p>\n

\n\t“Most of the sites have replicated their platforms.”<\/p>\n

\n\tJay, a graphic artist, still logs onto an illegal website every time he gets his paycheck.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 24-year-old, who asked to use a pseudonym as he fears his family’s judgment, showed how wagers for as little as 10 pesos (about 18 US cents) could be placed on two roosters shown on his phone.<\/p>\n

\n\tAuthorities estimate gamblers like Jay are fueling an industry that generates millions of dollars in revenue each week.<\/p>\n

\n\t“It’s not the money I’m after, it’s the thrill,” he said of an addiction he said he is trying to control.<\/p>\n

\n\t“It’s easier to chase that in (e-sabong) because it’s available on my cellphone.”<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile gambling for relatively low stakes, Jay has found himself forced to make excuses after losing the money meant for his younger brother’s school supplies.<\/p>\n

\n\tSince the e-sabong ban was initiated, the country’s telecoms commission has blocked more than 6,800 e-sabong websites, police Brig. Gen. Bernard Yang told AFP.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the use of VPNs makes pinpointing the streams’ true origins nearly impossible.<\/p>\n

\n\tAsked for examples of IP traces that had led to raids, he pointed to a successful operation in the central Philippines’ Cebu province — though it had taken place years earlier.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile conceding that current penalties — with fines as low as 1,000 pesos ($17) — provide little deterrent, Yang insisted the problem was simply “not so grave anymore.”<\/p>\n

\n\tBut Senator Erwin Tulfo on Friday told Congress e-sabong remained a menace as he pushed the country’s central bank for action against a range of online gambling sites.<\/p>\n

\n\tHours later, the monetary authority issued a directive that e-wallet firms remove their links to illegal websites within 48 hours.<\/p>\n

\n\tCongressman Rolando Valeriano, who told AFP the situation remains “very alarming,” has authored an anti-online cockfighting and gambling bill that would dramatically increase fines and jail terms.<\/p>\n

\n\t“In every community, you can see children who know how to (bet on) e-sabong. That’s what was worrying me,” he said.<\/p>\n

\n\t“This might be a lonely battle, but we will keep on fighting.”<\/p>\n

\n\tThe fight could be lonely indeed.<\/p>\n

\n\tA day after the new session of Congress began, a photograph began circulating in local media.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe image was of a congressman staring at his smartphone during the vote for House speaker.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe was watching a cockfight.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Cockfighting livestreams thrive in Philippines despite ban, murders<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA: Divers have spent more than a month searching a lake south of Manila for the bodies of men with links to the Philippines’ bloody national obsession: cockfighting. They were murdered by rogue police, a government witness said, allegedly for rigging matches at the height of the country’s pandemic-era craze for betting on live-streamed cockfights, or…<\/p>\n

Read More “Cockfighting livestreams thrive in Philippines despite ban, murders”<\/span> »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5353,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}