City councilor bats for regulated cockfighting

ILOILO City – Councilor Romel Duron is pushing to regulate cockfighting in this southern city.

In a recent regular session of the Sangguniang Panlungsod ( SP), Duron’s proposed measure hurdled first reading and was referred to the committee on games and amusement chaired by Duron himself.

“Tradition man na ang bulang but still it should be regulated,” he said.

The city has no local ordinance that regulates cockfighting. Duron also said Presidential Decree 449 or the Cockfighting Law of 1974 was not enough because it only focused on days when to conduct regular, special and international cock derbies.

For the proposed ordinance, Duron wanted to clarify how else could the city government benefit from cockfighting, noting that the latter was already generating employment, and revenues for the city government and l ocal businesses such as hotels, restaurants and even transportation.

Among others, Duron wanted t o regulate t he number of cockfighting hours.

“May ara man i ban asta na kaagahon. Ti, may nagasinggitan na da, makaistorbo especially kon lapit sa mga pamalay,” he said.

He further noted pending bills i n Congress giving local government units the authority to issue licenses to cockpits and regulate the conduct of cockfighting.

The city council earlier passed a resolution for the conduct of an investigation in aid of legislation on the alleged violation of t he operator of Iloilo Coliseum for holding cockfighting activities from Jan. 30 to 31 in line with the celebration of the feast of Nuestra Señora dela Candelaria despite not having been granted yet with a Resolution of No Objection (RONO) from the SP./