Bicol Saro party-list Representative Terry Ridon believes a key whistleblower could uncover a possible connection between the Duterte administration’s bloody drug war and the disappearance of 34 cockfighting enthusiasts, known as “sabungeros.” This follows the revival of the powerful House Quad Committee (QuadComm), which previously investigated extrajudicial killings under the war on drugs.
The joint body, composed of four House panels, was reconvened under House Resolution 106 to revisit unresolved issues from the 19th Congress. Ridon, who chairs the committee on public accounts, said that the group’s renewed focus will include the mysterious case of the missing sabungeros and how their disappearances may intersect with alleged operations carried out during the anti-drug campaign.
“We want to focus on the missing sabungeros and their intersectionality with the Duterte drug war,” Ridon explained. “There were allegations that the kill team for the missing sabungeros is the same as that for the Duterte drug war.”
Julie “Dondon” Patidongan, a whistleblower and co-accused in the case, recently surfaced and made chilling claims that the bodies of the sabungeros were dumped in Taal Lake. Since the start of the search operation last month, authorities have recovered hundreds of human remains, though it remains unclear if any belong to the missing cockfighting enthusiasts.
Ridon expressed the committee’s intent to speak directly with Patidongan during the upcoming hearings. “Is this kill team real? If it’s the same group from the drug war, it’s very concerning,” he said.
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla had earlier pointed out the possibility that members of the so-called “death squads” used during the drug war could have also been involved in e-sabong-related killings, especially during the height of the online cockfighting craze in the pandemic.
The disappearance of the 34 sabungeros, reported between 2021 and 2022, has long been suspected to be linked to criminal activities involving match-fixing and game-fixing syndicates. However, Ridon believes deeper connections to state-sanctioned violence must now be explored.
The QuadComm’s revived inquiry could potentially expose overlapping actors or operations between the Duterte-era drug war and the e-sabong disappearances—two high-profile issues that have haunted the nation in recent years.