DILG: All ‘e-sabong’ ops halted

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) on Monday said all online cockfighting or “e-sabong” operations in the country have been shut down following President Duterte’s verbal directive last week.

Speaking at the Laging Handa public briefing, Interior Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya, spokesperson for the DILG, said the operations of six or seven operators were shut down immediately following the President’s declaration in his televised Talk to the People public address last week that he wanted the e-sabong in the country to end.

“We said we did not need to wait for a written order from the Office of the President, precisely because the directive of the President was made in a public manner. He spoke at Talk to the People and he gave a directive to the Philippine National Police, the DILG. Given that instruction from the President, there is already a lawful order because it was done in a public manner,” Malaya said.

He said the Philippine Games and Amusement Corp. (Pagcor), which issued licenses to the e-sabong operators, also informed them about Mr. Duterte’s order.

The DILG, PNP, Pagcor and local governments have already complied with the President’s order by the stopping all e-sabong operations nationwide, he said.

Mr. Duterte earlier said the government earned P640 million a month in revenues from e-sabong but expressed growing concerns about its social costs such as addiction to the online gambling and the participation of minors.

Operations of e-sabong were also marred by deaths and involuntary disappearances involving online cockfighting employees and aficionados.

Mr. Duterte then ordered the DILG to conduct a survey among local governments on whether e-sabong should be continued or not. Following the results of the survey, the DILG recommended the termination of online cockfighting activities.