The mayor of Ferrol, Romblon, was arrested when authorities raided a cockpit in barangay Tubigon.
The arrested incumbent Mayor Jovencio Mayor Jr. was identified.
Among those arrested were 200 people who were caught in Tubigon Square Garden, where the cockpit is located.
According to Police Col Raynaldo Rosero, Romblon police provincial director, the CIDG-Romblon, Ferrol municipal police station, and Romblon police provincial mobile force company raided the cockpit at the same time after receiving a report that the cockfighting operation was continuing.
Cockfighting is still banned because Romblon is still at alert level 3.
According to Rosero, the Ferrol police chief issued a warning several times, but the mayor did not listen.
The mayor of the town of Ferrol and the others arrested face violations of IATF Resolution 159-a Series of 2022 and Cockfighting Law.
Unspecified amounts of cash, gambling paraphernalia, and dead and living gamecocks were confiscated from the arrested suspects.
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Mayor, 200 others arrested in Romblon cockpit
Last week, up to 26 sabungeros or cockfight bettors went missing after they went to various cockpits, according to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG). Among those missing was a pregnant woman.
Relatives of the alleged 30 missing sabungeros tried to go to Malacañang to ask President Rodrigo Duterte to help them find their loved ones.
But they were not allowed to pass through Mendiola because they did not have a permit to hold a rally.
Relatives of the missing sabungeros complained that the case of their missing loved ones is not progressing.
Cockfighting was already flourishing in the pre-colonial Philippines, as recorded by Antonio Pigafetta, the Italian diarist aboard Ferdinand Magellan’s 1521 expedition.
Cockfighting, locally termed sabong, remains a popular pastime in the Philippines, where illegal and legal cockfights occur. Lawful cockfights are held in cockpits every week, while illegal ones are called tupada or tigbakay. The kristo usually takes bets, so named because of his outstretched hands when calling out wagers from the audience from memory.
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