Cockfights in Cavite still banned as guidelines remain pending — Remulla

POPULAR PASTIME Cockfighting, a legal form of gambling, remains a popular pastime, especially in the provinces where cockpit arenas have become community fixtures. —INQUIRER PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Cockfighting remains banned in Cavite as the local government is still crafting the guidelines to regulate the activity, Cavite Governor Jonvic Remulla said Wednesday.

“Ang sabungan ay ‘super spreader’ and (coronavirus disease) COVID-19 hotspot. Kaya’t pag-aaralan muna namin ng maigi ang paggawa ng bagong patakaran bago tayo pumayag dito. Maliban doon, ay wala sa konsensya ko na ang simbahan ay 50% lang ang puede ngunit ang sabungan ay walang limit,” Remulla wrote in a Facebook post.

(Cockfighting is a super spreader and a COVID-19 hotspot. We will study this first to create new guidelines before we can allow this. Aside from this, I don’t have the conscience to allow 50 percent capacity for churches while cockfighting has no limit.)

“Give us time to study it and we will come up with a comprehensive guideline for cockfighting venues,” he added.

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The national government has allowed cockfighting activities to return in modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) areas like Cavite but local government units will need to decide if licensed cockpits can resume operations.

Meanwhile, Remulla said Cavite is currently reporting 60 to 80 cases of coronavirus disease cases per day, which is significantly lower than its previous records of 800 to 1,000 cases daily.

Despite this, Remulla warned residents to ramain cautious and brace for a possible second wave of infections.

“Pero sa ibang bansa ay kasalukuyan may 2nd wave. Malaki ang posibilidad na papunta rin tayo sa ganoong trend, so always exert caution,” he said.

(In other countries there is already a second wave. There is a big possibility that we will follow that trend so always exert caution.)

Cavite is under MGCQ from Oct. 1 to 31 to reopen the economy and control the spread of new COVID-19 cases.

Oct. 20 data from the Department of Health’s COVID-19 tracker showed that Cavite has 19,291 total confirmed cases, 16,521 recoveries, and 171 deaths.

/MUF