Admin raps filed vs cops in missing ‘sabungeros’
A whistleblower on Monday linked a retired police general and two active police colonels to the disappearance of 34 “sabungeros” (cockfighting aficionados) after filing complaints against 12 policemen for possible administrative liability.
Julie “Dondon” Patidongan, joined by relatives of the sabungeros, filed the complaints against 12 policemen at the National Police Commission (Napolcom) office.
The 12 were among 15 active, retired and dismissed policemen whom Patidongan had linked to the case of the cockfighting enthusiasts who he said were abducted and strangled to death before their bodies were dumped in Taal Lake in 2021 and 2022.
The 15 had been restricted to Camp Crame following Patidongan’s exposé on the case.
Napolcom did not release his complaint-affidavit, but Patidongan identified two of the 12 policemen in his complaint in an interview with reporters. The Inquirer, however, is withholding their identities until Napolcom releases Patidongan’s affidavit and once the police officials issue their official statements.
Pressed if there were other higher ranking officers involved in the case, Patidongan mentioned a retired police general in southern Luzon. The Inquirer is also withholding the name of this official.
“They were the individuals tasked to kill people during the war on drugs before. That’s it,” Patidongan told reporters at the Napolcom office.
Patidongan, alias “Totoy,” was referring to then President Rodrigo Duterte’s crackdown on drug suspects that led to his arrest and detention at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the Netherlands, for crimes against humanity.
In television interviews, he had tagged gaming tycoon Charlie “Atong” Ang and one “Engineer Salazar” as masterminds in the case. Ang had denied the allegations.
Of the retired general, Patidongan said: “[He] is an Alpha member [of Pitmaster Group]. He was one of the people who urged Mr. Atong Ang to have me killed. He said: ‘Boss, kill Dondon Patidongan so your problems will be solved.’”
“They have a monthly payment because they are an Alpha member. If someone is an Alpha member, that means they received P70 million, but since there are three in the group, maybe they shared it,” he added. He did not provide other details.
At press time on Monday, the Inquirer was still trying to reach the active police officials for comment. The retired police general did not respond to reporters’ requests for comment.
Philippine National Police chief Gen. Nicolas Torre III had earlier said that of the 15 restricted to Camp Crame, 11 were active, one was retired, and three others were dismissed before the controversy broke out. He added that the highest ranked among them was a lieutenant colonel.
Rafael Vicente Calinisan, Napolcom vice chair, said he had yet to review Patidongan’s complaint. If ever administrative charges will be filed against the 12 respondents, it will be for grave misconduct and conduct unbecoming of an officer, he added.
Patidongan is among six security personnel of the Manila Arena cockpit charged with kidnapping and serious illegal detention in connection with the disappearance of the sabungeros.
Mixed bag of bones
He has been out on bail but the Court of Appeals overturned a Manila court’s ruling that granted his petition for bail. He has applied for inclusion in the government’s witness protection program.
The whistleblower had also claimed that law enforcers were paid to kidnap and kill the cockfighting enthusiasts.
Torre said on Monday that a mix of human and animal remains were among those retrieved from Taal Lake during search operations that began last Friday.
“We recovered animal remains, there’s also human, and they’re all mixed so we are looking into it and we are processing and differentiating if the bones are animal or human in origin,” he said in a briefing.
Brig. Gen. Jean Fajardo, PNP spokesperson, said that DNA samples of at least 12 relatives of the missing sabungeros and possible human remains retrieved from the lake were due for scientific examination by the forensic group.
“Well, if there is a positive match, it will be the biggest development of this case,” she said in a briefing.
So far, divers have retrieved five sacks from the lake in Batangas province.
Their search operations yielded four sacks. But before the operation, authorities found a sack containing suspected charred human bones in the lakebed some 10 meters off the shore of Barangay Balakilong in Laurel, Batangas.
‘E-sabong’-drug war links?
Meanwhile, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla did not rule out the possibility that hired killers, including the Davao Death Squad, could be behind the deaths of individuals in the case of the missing sabungeros.
“There are people involved in the drug war killings who are also involved in e-sabong. That’s as far as we can trace right now, but we will have to establish clearer links to each other,” he told reporters on Monday.
The Davao Death Squad was allegedly tapped by Duterte to carry out his drug war initially in Davao City when he was mayor, and then across the country when he was president. —WITH A REPORT FROM JANE BAUTISTA
