MISSING SABUNGEROS

As authorities continue their search for missing cockfighting aficionados, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla announced on Wednesday that a separate operation around Taal Lake has led to the exhumation of three bodies, which he suspects may be victims of the previous administration’s “drug war.”

Remulla stated that these bodies, exhumed from unspecified areas around Taal, were allegedly buried in 2020 on the orders of police officers after their relatives failed to claim them from funeral parlors. “We are exhuming them as we speak because we have to find out who these people are. They were never claimed,” Remulla told reporters. The Department of Justice (DOJ) plans to establish a DNA bank to properly identify the recovered remains.

Prior to this development, the multi-agency search in Taal Lake, which commenced last week, was primarily focused on locating the remains of 34 individuals linked to online cockfighting (“e-sabong”) who disappeared between April 2021 and January 2022. These “sabungeros” were reportedly dumped in the freshwater lake after being killed for alleged match-fixing or cheating, according to a key whistleblower.

Justice Secretary Remulla indicated a potential “intersection” between the perpetrators in the sabungero case and those involved in extrajudicial killings (EJKs) during the previous administration’s war on drugs. “The people who undertake the contractual killings may intersect somehow with the drug war and with the ‘e-sabong’,” he said on Monday, adding that investigators are working to establish clearer links. He projected that the ongoing search in Taal Lake could extend up to six months. Remulla also noted that search teams initially focused on a fish cage area linked to a “person of interest” in the sabungero case, but are also investigating other sites near Taal that “may have been used for the drug war.”

Whistleblower’s allegations and police involvement

Whistleblower Julie Patidongan, alias “Totoy,” has also cited a possible connection between the anti-drug crackdown and the mass disappearance of the cockfighting aficionados. On Monday, after lodging an administrative complaint with the National Police Commission (Napolcom) against 12 active and six dismissed police officers, Patidongan identified Police Col. Jacinto Malinao Jr. and Lt. Col. Ryan Jay Orapa among the respondents. Patidongan alleged that these individuals were “tasked to kill people during the war on drugs before.”

Patidongan, along with five other security personnel from the Manila Arena cockpit, faces charges of kidnapping and serious illegal detention of the sabungeros. While a Manila court initially allowed them bail, the Court of Appeals overturned this decision in December 2024. Patidongan is now under the protective custody of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and has applied for inclusion in the witness protection program.

The case for the missing sabungeros stems from the alleged abduction of Mark Joseph Velasco, Marlon Baccay, James Baccay, Rowel Gomez, John Claude Inonog, and Rondel Cristorum. Witnesses reported seeing them forced into a gray van from the basement of the Manila Arena on January 13, 2022. Patidongan has also alleged that the “Alpha Group” of business tycoon Charlie “Atong” Ang ordered the abduction and killing of over 100 sabungeros for cheating in e-sabong games.

Official actions and reactions

Napolcom has given the 12 active police officers implicated by Patidongan five days to respond to the administrative complaint. Napolcom Vice Chairman Rafael Calinisan stated that failure to submit counter-affidavits would constitute a waiver of their rights, leading to an evaluation for a formal charge. These officers are among 15 policemen, including active, dismissed, and retired personnel, who were previously placed under restrictive custody at Camp Crame.

Meanwhile, the PNP Forensic Group is currently examining bone pieces recovered from Taal Lake to determine if they are of human origin. Three pieces from a sack retrieved on July 10, and a separate set of six pieces from sacks retrieved on July 12, are under examination. Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla, brother of the Justice Secretary and also Napolcom chairman, commented on Wednesday that the findings could “bring us closer to the conclusion of the story,” suggesting a “conspiracy, grand conspiracy.”

In a separate development, Vice President Sara Duterte on Tuesday dismissed attempts to link her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, to the sabungeros case as “preposterous.” This statement followed Justice Secretary Remulla’s remarks about a potential “intersection” between drug war killings and the e-sabong operations. Remulla declined to comment on the former president’s statement. Office of the Vice President (OVP) spokesman Ruth Castelo clarified her past professional links to Charlie “Atong” Ang, stating their lawyer-client relationship ended in 2009 after his release from detention.