Musings: Bone shards in lake waters
As a journalist, I have been in unlikely and dangerous places and situations better not described in detail here. (Samplers: Spending the night in prostitutes’ quarters to learn more and write about the HIV-AIDS situation. Navigating riverine channels and spending several days in a New People’s Army rebel training camp in a forested area in the Visayas for an article in the Sunday Inquirer Magazine. That was at the height of NPA firepower. ‘Nuff said.) But I must confess that I have never been inside a cockpit (sabungan in Filipino, bulangan in Ilonggo).
I have seen cockpits in rural areas but I have not experienced the goings-on inside—the betting, the kristos, the bloody aftermath, etc. A pity because the game of fowls, though eschewed by animal rights advocates, has made it to warm and endearing Filipino tales about the rural way of life a generation ago. Raising fighting cocks is, for many, a lucrative livelihood. Prize-winning cocks are worth a fortune but dead ones, I am told, are not good for tinola. In provinces, rural folk wake up to the crowing of fighting cocks at dawn, earlier than the pealing of church bells. Men massaging their male fowls in street corners is a common sight.
Now that cockfight betting has gone online with e-sabong, that distinct Filipino way of raising and betting on fighting cocks seems a thing of the past. Or maybe not. It is also now associated with criminal undertakings that saw dozens of cockfight denizens bite the dust and vanish without a trace four years ago. Until…
I read up on electronic sabong or e-sabong. It is defined as “the online and/or remote or off-site wagering/betting on live cockfighting matches, events, and/or activities streamed or broadcast live from cockpit arenas licensed or authorized by the local government units having jurisdiction thereof.” In other words, “it is the digital version of traditional cockfighting where users bet on the live-streamed cockfights through online platforms. Players register on the platform, verify their identity, and can then watch live cockfights and place bets on the outcome. Winnings are typically disbursed through digital wallets like GCash or bank transfers.” It is online gambling plain and simple minus the Filipino cultural characteristics that go with it.
Church and civil society groups have raised a howl about the ill effects of e-sabong on the youth, families, and society in general. It is simply online gambling and is addictive. The government earns revenues but e-sabong also spawned a multitude of crimes. High-profile characters are being floated.
For weeks now, the National Bureau of Investigation, the Philippine National Police, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), other government agencies, and local government units have been exerting efforts to verify one whistleblower’s account on how the sabong workers were made to disappear without a trace some four years ago.
The PCG divers have scoured the lake bed and recovered bags of bones and rocks in lake areas where the whistleblower said the bodies were thrown. Forensic experts have yet to determine if the recovered bones belong to the missing persons. The other day, Justice Secretary Jesus Remulla raised the possibility of the remains being those of victims of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal drug war, which was carried out with impunity. Who knows?
Taal Lake and Taal Volcano in Batangas province are a sight to behold from the Tagaytay City ridges in Cavite. In grade school, we were taught that it was “a lake within a lake with a volcano on an island in a lake” or something like that. I remember how a Batangas governor wanted to put a BATANGAS sign on the volcano side facing Tagaytay, similar to the giant HOLLYWOOD letters in Los Angeles. It was to remind tourists that the lake and volcano belong to Batangas. The dumb move was thumbed down.
The lake is a source of livelihood for fishermen. When people learned that the lake had become a dumping ground for corpses, sales of fish from the lake declined. Local officials held a “boodle-style” fish fest to show the fish from the lake were safe to eat. Besides, it has been four years since the lake became the graveyard for the missing sabong workers, a teenager among them. The lake is a source of tawilis (freshwater sardinella) that thrives there. I love the bottled tawilis in olive oil that nuns in Tagaytay make. Supply runs out fast.
Viewing Taal Lake and Taal Volcano on a clear day, one can see forever. Some days, they are shrouded in mist that evokes a kind of mystery that cannot be fathomed.
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