Murder mystery of missing Filipino cockfighters takes new twist
An appeal has been made to Japan to lend unmanned drone submarines to probe the 560ft-deep Taal Lake, where they suspect that the remains of the murdered men lie.
The testimony of a whistleblower has thrown open the case — which has dragged in a rich businessman and a prominent actress and exposed the dark side of cockfighting, one of southeast Asia's most popular diversions.
The grim story started during the Covid-19 pandemic when gatherings for cockfighting, or sabong as it is known in the Philippines, became impossible. Instead, businesses began streaming the fights online and profiting from betting by locked-down gamblers across the country.
In January 2022, sabungeros, who organised the fights, began to disappear. Some were teenage boys; several were bundled out of their homes by thugs and driven off never to be seen again. The speculation was that they had been abducted on the orders of gambling bosses who believed that the small-time sabungeros had cheated them.
The police arrested six security guards, who were charged with kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment. Now one of them, a man named Julie Patidongan, alias Dondon, has given a detailed account of their grim fate and named those he claims are responsible for the killings.
They include a businessman and 'gaming consultant' named Charlie 'Atong' Ang and the actress, singer and socialite Gretchen Barretto, who was allegedly an active investor in Ang's gambling business.
'They were always together,' Patidongan told Philippine media. 'She knows all of Mr Atong Ang's secrets.'
Both Ang and Barretto deny any involvement in the disappearance of the cockfighters. Ang is suing Patidongan for defamation.
The police, however, are taking his testimony seriously. The problem now is how to find any evidence in the large, acidic and notoriously deep volcanic lake.
'We will need technical divers to determine the veracity of the information,' Jesus Crispin Remulla, the Philippine justice secretary, said. 'It's not easy to go into a lake bed to look for human remains.
'I will speak to [whoever] would want to come here to tell the truth … Our very soul as Filipinos is at stake here. We must not allow money to become the only master of the Filipino people.'
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