Three former Philippine police officers and six others have been charged with kidnapping after a spate of disappearances in the country’s massive cockfighting industry, Philippine authorities said yesterday, with dozens of victims feared dead.
The Philippines Department of Justice said in a statement that prosecutors had found probable cause to file charges against the three then-policemen for allegedly robbing and abducting a man from his house.
Philippine police have said the victim, accused of operating a fake betting Web site, was taken from his home in August last year.
Photo: AFP
Police said five officers were dismissed over the case, including the three being charged.
Six cockpit security personnel are also being charged with kidnapping after witnesses saw them bundle six players into a van against their will during a Manila cockfight in January last year.
An investigation by the Senate of the Philippines found the players were suspected of sabotaging their roosters so they would lose, while secretly betting on their opponents. There are about 27 people still missing in other suspected kidnappings linked to cockfighting in Manila.
State prosecutors are investigating some of the other cases, but have yet to file charges
Police have said that many of the victims were last seen alive inside the country’s raucous cockpits.
Philippine Secretary of Justice Jesus Remulla has said the 34 people missing in the cases are likely dead.
Prosecutors decided to press charges against the police officers and the cockpit security guards “in light of the positive identification [of the suspects] and credible testimonies of the complainants’ witnesses,” the department of justice said in its statement.
Authorities said they expected to bring charges in the other missing persons cases, but hopes of finding the victims alive were fading.
“I wouldn’t even want to call them missing cockfighters, but probably dead cockfighters,” Remulla told reporters. “The probability of them coming out [alive] is not very high.”
Filipinos from all walks of life wager millions of US dollars on matches every week between roosters who fight to the death with razor-sharp metal spurs tied to their legs.
The sport, banned in many other countries, survived COVID-19 pandemic restrictions by going online, drawing many more bettors who use mobile phones to place wagers.
The abductions shed light on the seedy underbelly of the online cockfighting industry, in which fights were held in empty arenas and livestreamed to millions of bettors.
Taxes from the fights helped to replenish government coffers depleted by the pandemic, but then-Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte banned the livestreaming shortly before he left office on June 30, while allowing traditional cockfighting to resume.
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