DOJ chief pauses search in Taal Lake
Investigators temporarily suspended the search and retrieval operations in Taal Lake for disappeared cockfight enthusiasts, or “sabungeros” in Tagalog, because of bad weather, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said Friday.
“The weather does not permit us to carry a good search,” Remulla told reporters at a briefing in the Department of Justice (DOJ), noting that underwater visibility in the lake has reduced significantly because of the rain caused by Tropical Storm “Crising.”
Remulla did not say when the search will resumed but the state weather bureau forecast that the weather will remain bad at least until Saturday.
DOJ investigators are looking for the remains of 34 sabungeros from different areas who disappeared from 2021 to 2022. The probe of the disappearances was slow until the emergence of cockfight arena security guard Julie “Dondon” Patidongan (usually identified by DOJ only as “Totoy”), who claimed the sabungeros were killed for cheating in cockfights and later dumped in the lake.
Validated claims
Remulla earlier said that the searches that have been conducted since June tend to confirm Patidongan’s claims, including the recovery in Taal Lake of sacks containing what are believed to be human bones.
On Thursday, search teams recovered four more sacks in the murky lake, two contained what appeared to be human bones while the other two contained sand.
“We found what appeared to be human bones in the area pointed to us by our sources, including alias Totoy,” Remulla said in the briefing, stressing that the finds were still under forensic examination. “This time in the specific quadrant pointed out to us as a site.”
Police Lt. Col. Edmar dela Torre, chief of the Philippine National Police’s Forensic Group’s DNA Laboratory Division, said they have received 91 pieces of bones from Taal Lake and six have so far been found to be human.
Dela Torre said the DNA Laboratory is working on extracting usable genetic materials from the Taal Lake finds, to be followed crossmatching with genetic samples from the families of the missing sabungeros.
Aside from the underwater search, authorities also exhumed three bodies from a public cemetery in Laurel, Batangas. Remulla said the bodies are connected to sabungeros disappearances, but the DOJ chief declined to divulge detains as he was still waiting for a police report.
In addition to the challenges of posthumous searches, teams also have to deal with other factors, like the weather and the possible eruption of Taal Volcano, one of the most active volcanoes in the country with 39 recorded historical eruptions, near the middle of Taal Lake.
The volcano had a phreatic eruption occurred on May 29, followed by a phreatomagmatic eruption on July 17.
But Remulla said the DOJ was in continuing consultation with the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) and he would order a suspension of the search if it becomes unhealthy to search teams.
“If it’s not healthy, if this will be detrimental to people’s health, then we stop for now. Phivolcs will advise us on what to do, whether it’s safe or not,” Remulla said.
