Until last month when their families went public on television to appeal for help in locating their missing kin, there was scant news and hardly any police action on the case of 31 men involved in “e-sabong,” who were abducted by still unknown parties from April last year to January this year. Thirty-one men vanish without a trace with no ransom demand and no dead bodies—only their abandoned vehicles—turning up, and yet there had been no wave of protests from the general public, no peremptory promise to investigate from authorities, not a statement of concern from Department of Justice (DOJ) officials.
Until a Senate hearing Thursday last week unearthed more disturbing information: After missing for so long, these men “are most likely dead,” according to Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa who presided over the inquiry. According to a report in this paper, among the missing are gamefowl handlers, aides, helpers, and vehicle drivers suspected of being “manyonyope,” or game fixers, who allegedly sabotage the performance of a fighting cock and then bet on its opponent. The men reportedly went to three cockpits operated by businessman Charlie “Atong” Ang’s Lucky 8 Star Quest, namely the Manila Arena in Sta. Ana, and those in Lipa City, Batangas, and Santa Cruz town, Laguna.
“What offense did they commit? What exactly happened? Who took them? Where were they brought? What have they done to them? Until today, we have no answers to these,” said an anguished mother of two sons, Isabelita Baccay, at the hearing.
Shown during the hearing was a YouTube video where Ang could be seen calling out “double agents” allegedly stealing videos from his e-sabong firm and posting these on a duplicated website to solicit bets illegally. “Ito tandaan niyo, pag hindi kayo tumigil … tingnan niyo maigi kung ano mangyayari sa inyo (If you don’t stop, just wait and see what would happen to you),” Ang had warned in the video. “[D]o not forget you have ID, you have address obtained by the CIDG (Criminal Investigation and Detection Group) and the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) cybercrime, monitoring you double agents,” Ang added in the video.
Ang has been invited to the follow-up Senate hearing today and could face contempt charges should he fail to appear.
In mid-February, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra finally ordered the NBI to investigate the case and file appropriate charges “if evidence warrants.” Considering that the disappearance had commenced in April last year, with Ang reporting the errant agents to the NBI and CIDG as heard in the video reportedly uploaded in August, why did it take the DOJ so long to take action?
Meanwhile, Philippine National Police chief Gen. Dionardo Carlos on Feb. 22 assured the missing men’s families that the police were exhausting all efforts to locate their kin. The senators were suspicious: How could the police just swallow management’s excuse that they had no CCTV camera or that it had malfunctioned at the time of the abductions?
And what was the business of the CIDG and the NBI obtaining the addresses of those men on Ang’s behalf, as he claimed in the video? Was this the reason why, according to witnesses, the police had dragged their feet on the case? Two victims were allegedly arrested for estafa by armed men who introduced themselves as law enforcement agents.
The number of people missing, the manner of their abduction, the possible big personalities involved, the indifference of authorities—shouldn’t all these warrant some outrage? How could 31 men just disappear in a country supposedly ruled by law and with such a robust justice system in place—or so claimed DOJ officials—that the International Criminal Court had agreed to pause its investigation into President Duterte’s “crimes against humanity”?
Could the lack of outrage be due to the men being poor, probably daily wage earners who were looking to supplement their meager pay with online bets on e-sabong? Or could it be that, like lumad teacher Chad Booc who was killed in an alleged military encounter and subsequently labeled a terrorist, the 31 missing men were suspected game fixers, petty gamblers who, like drug suspects, are considered expendable? Even so, don’t they have rights and deserve due process as well? Don’t mothers like Baccay deserve to know what happened to their loved ones? These men are someone’s husband, father, brother, son.
But maybe no answers are forthcoming. Maybe the climate of impunity the past six years has normalized extrajudicial killings and made them acceptable.
On top of suspending e-sabong, authorities should expedite investigation into the case until the missing men are found and the perpetrators identified and held accountable. Only then can we maintain our faith in the justice system. Maybe then our sense of outrage could be restored. Because if we lose that, what else do we stand to lose next?