Romblon mayor, 200 others nabbed for illegal derby

ROUNDUP: Police round up 200 people who attended an illegal cockfighting event in Ferrol, Romblon province, including the town mayor (not in the photo), on Sunday. (Photo from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Romblon)

CITY OF CALAPAN, Oriental Mindoro, Philippines — Mayor Jovencio Mayor Jr. if Ferrol town in Romblon province is in hot water for violating COVID-19 restrictions by allowing the staging of and attending a cockfighting derby in his municipality.

Mayor was arrested on Sunday morning along with some 200 individuals inside the Tubigon Square Garden in the village of Tubigon while they were watching a cockfight, which was held even if Romblon was under alert level 3 from Feb. 1 to Feb. 15.

Romblon, along with the Mimaropa provinces of Oriental Mindoro, Occidental Mindoro and Marinduque, were prohibited from holding cockfights and other mass gathering activities while under the third most stringent alert level due to the surge in COVID-19 cases.

Personnel from the Criminal Investigation Detection Group (CIDG) in Romblon and local police arrested the mayor and the other cockfight attendees for violating the Inter-Agency Task Force resolution that placed Romblon under alert level 3; and Presidential Decree No. 449 (cockfighting law), the police said in a report on Monday.

Seized from the suspects were an undetermined amount of bet money, gambling paraphernalia, a number of dead and live fighting cocks, with attached gaffs.

‘Low risk’

Mayor, in a text message to the Inquirer on Monday, admitted he allowed the conduct of the cockfight since his town has achieved herd immunity against COVID-19.

He said Ferrol was the only town in Romblon that had inoculated more than 70 percent of its population and had “very low” transmission, health-care utilization and bed utilization rates. Ferrol has a population of 8,005 based on the 2020 census.

He said Ferrol was considered a “low-risk municipality” and should have been classified under alert level 2. “This is the reason why I allowed the request of my constituents as it is the only recreation of our farmers, fishers and construction workers during Sundays with strict observance of minimum health protocols,” he said.

As of Monday, Romblon has 26 active COVID-19 cases, none of which were in Ferrol.

But Mayor and the 200 others would still face charges that would be filed by the CIDG before the provincial prosecutor’s office in Odiongan town, said Police Maj. Loreto Maulion Jr., chief of the Mimaropa police public information office, on Monday.

Maulion said they were told by the town’s police chief, Lt. Hilario Eugenio, that law enforcers were not informed of the conduct of the cockfight.

Mayor is a third-term official and is not a candidate for any position in the elections in May.

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