TACLOBAN CITY—At least 39 persons are facing charges after their arrest during an anti-illegal cockfighting operation by police in Naval town, Biliran province late on Tuesday (May 11).
Those arrested were charged at the prosecutor’s office with violating Presidential Decree No. 1602, which penalizes all forms of illegal gambling.
Seized from them were 21 fighting cocks of which seven were dead, gaffing paraphernalia, and bet money amounting to P10,134.
The operation was conducted after the police received information about the illegal cockfight at the village of Calumpang.
Cockfights have been banned in the province as a measure to prevent mass gathering and transmission of SARS Cov2, the highly contagious coronavirus that causes COVID-19, a disease which still has no known cure.
Biliran currently has 438 COVID-19 cases with eight deaths.