The Philippines Secretary of Justice said on Friday that he had asked for technical assistance in Japan to help seek dozens of rooster fight The participants would have killed by the police force and were dumped in a lake south of Manila.
The case is linked to a series of mysterious disappearances in 2022 in the huge rooster combat industry of the Southeast Asian Nation, known locally under the name of “Sabong”.
The interest in unresolved cases has increased since the television appearance of a witness – since identified as Julie “Dondon” Patidongan, a recent candidate for the mayor – who claimed to know where the bodies had been overwhelmed in Lake Taal.
Justice Secretary Crispin Remulla said on Friday that he now had several witnesses who could “testify where (in the water) these missing persons had been launched”.
He added that a group of 15 anonymous national police officers were investigated and had obtained limited rights.
“They carried out the executions,” he said.
“I just signed a letter for the Japanese government asking for help to allow us to make a cartography of the lake bed and … other technologies we need,” added Remulla.
“We need a scientific approach here. We cannot leave this at random. ”
Located about two hours south of the capital, Lake Taal houses an active island volcano and covers more than 89 square miles with a depth of 564 feet in certain places.
Carola Frentzen / Picture Alliance via Getty Images
Patidongan first appeared in Silhouette in an interview on local GMA television before revealing itself later, saying that he feared for his life.
He identified Charlie Ang, a man involved in live rooster combat operations, such as the brain behind the disappearances.
Ang denied all the accusations and put a legal action on Thursday accusing Patidongan, a former employee, slander, threats and conspiracy in order to commit a flight.
The Ministry of Justice carried out a series of arrests at the end of 2022 of the police and security personnel who would have involved the disappearance of 34 participants in the combinations industry who, according to Remulla, were “probably dead”.
Since its television appearance, Patidongan has said that the actual number could reach 100.
The Philippins of all horizons bet millions of dollars on matches each week between roosters who fight to death with acute metallic spurs attached to their legs.
Sport, prohibited in many other countries, has survived the pandemic restrictions on the coronavirus by going online, drawing many other players who use their mobile phones to place bets.
An investigation by the Senate in 2022 revealed that daily bets on online rooster fights had raised $ 52.4 million, The BBC reported. But after the disappearance of men, live fighting was examined and former President Rodrigo Duterte finally prohibited them, according to the BBC.
In 2020, a police officer in the Philippines was killed during a raid On an illegal rooster fight after the blade of a rooster decided its femoral artery.
Aaron Favila / AP
Cock-fighting operations also made the headlines in the United States recently.
Last month, more than 40 people were arrested after a The rooster combat ring was broken in southern Florida.
Earlier this year, Hundreds of birds were euthanized after a joint investigation led to their crisis of an alleged rooster combat operation in Kansas.