PRESIDENT DUTERTE ORDERS STOPPAGE OF E-SABONG OPERATIONS

President Rodrigo Duterte ordered on Monday, May 2, 2022 the stoppage of “e-sabong” (online cockfight betting) operations as per recommendation of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, following the recommendation of Interior Secretary Eduardo Año after the conduct of a survey and validating reports from several sources. The President directed Año to conduct a survey to determine the social impact of e-sabong after receiving several objections from a number of people, saying, mostly in Tagalog, that the secretary “reported and validated what I have been hearing. What we are after e-sabong is the P640 million revenue that the government is getting from it.” Calls to stop the e-sabong operations started early this year due to reports about missing cockfight betting enthusiasts.