Facebook logo over cockfighting scene. The DILG has asked Meta, Facebook’s parent company, to take down e-sabong sites after President Rodrigo Duterte decided to stop online cockfighting operations. Image from Jerome Cristobal / INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) called on social media giant Facebook on Monday to block illegal e-sabong or online cockfighting pages and accounts.
DILG Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya wrote to Meta, Facebook’s parent organization, requesting to block pages, groups, and accounts that encouraged illegal e-sabong on all its platforms.
“We hope that Facebook will immediately suspend or block pages devoted to illegal sabong as fast as they suspend pages that allegedly violate their community standards. I presume that engaging in illegal activities is a violation of FB’s standards,” he said in a statement.
“We look forward to fruitful cooperation, coordination, and collaboration on this matter in order to fully implement the ban on illegal e-sabong,” the official added.
The undersecretary submitted the list of seven Facebook pages, groups, and accounts that were identified by the Philippine National Police Anti-Cyber Crime Group as operating illegal e-sabong.
DILG Secretary Eduardo Año likewise thanked the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for directing bank-supervised financial institutions to clear e-sabong operators from the list of merchants in their online applications.
According to Año, the BSP also ordered bank-supervised financial institutions to inform their clients to transfer their remaining funds to their e-wallets as e-sabong accounts and electronic wallets will be disabled.
READ: DILG to PNP, LGUs: Go after illegal ‘e-sabong’ operations
The clients must transfer the funds within 30 days after the issuance of BSP Memorandum Circular 2022-026, which was released on May 27.
“This means that even if operators or bettors go underground, they cannot bet through Gcash and Paymaya anymore,” Año said.
On May 3, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered an end to e-sabong operations, citing its social cost to Filipinos.