Task force orders police to toughen operations vs cockfighting

October 2, 2020

Following the arrest of a former vice mayor and two local government officials in Batangas, the Joint Task Force COVID Shield on Friday ordered police commanders to intensify their operations against “tupada” or cockfighting.

Police Lt. Gen. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar, JTF commander, said the Batangas Provincial Police Office conducted an operation last September 30 based on the report of a concerned citizen about illegal cockfighting which resulted in the arrest of 14 people, including an incumbent municipal councilor, a barangay captain and a former vice mayor of the town.

Arrested were Alitagtag Municipal Councilor Jerome Garcia, former Alitagtag vice mayor Manuel Gutierrez, and incumbent Dominador East barangay captain Antonio Chavez.

They are  facing cases of violating Presidential Decree 1602 or Illegal Gambling, Bayanihan to Heal as One Act and Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Disease and Health Event on Public Health Concern Act.

Eleazar said they have been receiving reports that cockfighting has resumed in some parts of the country amid prohibition against mass gathering and to follow minimum health safety standard protocols.

“The activity is illegal and it looks like they are not respecting the government who are tirelessly working and looking for funds just to protect them and their family against COVID-19. This needs to stop and they should be given a lesson,” he said.

Eleazar said the successful operation was in line with the directive of PNP chief General Camilo Cascolan for police commanders to reach out to the community not only on peace and order matters but also in preventing the spread of COVID-19.

“The successful operation in Alitagtag, Batangas gives us  the idea of what we can achieve if the police and the community will work together to maintain peace and order and to protect every community from the coronavirus,” he said.

Police commanders were urged to ensure that all the hotlines and social media accounts of the police stations must be active  to act on every complaint and concerns of the people in their areas of responsibility (AORs). Ella Dionisio/DMS