By Robert B. Roque, Jr.
The power of the Senate was supposed to be on display when Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa’s committee on public order and dangerous drugs started investigating the eight cases of missing “sabungeros.” Since last year, 34 cockfight aficionados have gone missing amid the flourishing operations of e-sabong in the country.
E-sabong industry leader Charlie “Atong” Ang was at the center of the probe as senators raised suspicion over possible forced abductions at three cockfight arenas he owns – places where 31 of the missing sabungeros were last seen.
Before the probe started last March, Ang appeared in a video denouncing e-sabong agents of his Lucky 8 Star Quest Inc.’s World Pitmasters Cup who had been ripping him off. In the video posted on the Pitmasters’ Facebook account, Ang warned them to stop “bago kayo masaktan (before you get hurt).”
But when he testified before the Senate, this smooth operator formerly hired by the government as a gaming consultant managed to take the heat off himself by pointing fingers at supposed conspirators trying to bring him down. He rocked the boat by naming elected and uniformed officials past and present as if they were the bad guys in a multi-billion gambling industry of which he already controls more than 90 percent.
Now that the Senate has wrapped up its probe, we will all have to settle with its recommendations for further investigation by law enforcement authorities; but really none of the answers on what bitter fate has befallen the people who disappeared. It’s disappointing, to say the least, and quite as fat and crispy as a Will Smith slap delivered by Mr. Ang across the faces of our senators.
To save face, Dela Rosa says he is not convinced Ang had no hand in the disappearances and enjoined the PNP’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and the Department of Justice “to gather more evidence against Atong Ang and the other officials of Pitmasters.” But, seriously, aren’t certain CIDG operatives, as per witnesses, persons of interest themselves in these likely abductions?
Of course, it sounds pleasing that Dela Rosa’s committee is also drafting recommendations to limit e-sabong operations. Perhaps, even craft a law that would restrict the holding of e-sabong only on Sundays and legal holidays — similar to the existing law on traditional cockfighting. On the surface, that looks like a big blow to Ang and the happy operators of e-sabong.
But why aren’t they shaken? Maybe it’s because e-sabong operators know they’re untouchables. Proof: the government had rejected shutting down e-sabong operations even when the almighty Senate started knocking on its doors to investigate possible kidnappings or probably even the murder of 34 people. In fact, even on Good Friday e-sabong operations continued. Ain’t that right, PAGCOR?
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