DOST: Bones of missing sabungeros can still be recovered from Taal Lake

Science and Technology Secretary Renato Solidum serves as one of the key speakers at a news forum in Quezon City on Saturday, July 5, 2025. — Photo by Arnel Tacson/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — It is possible for the bones of missing sabungeros (cockfighting enthusiasts) to be recovered from Taal Lake if the bodies were really buried there, according to Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Secretary Renato Solidum on Saturday.

“Bone does not decompose,” Solidum said in a news forum in Quezon City. “Bone does not care about decomposition. It is only the flesh that rots,” he added.

READ: ‘Sabungeros’ kin: Atong being tagged no surprise; Gretchen speaks

Meanwhile, the DOST chief said the rate of the decomposition of the bodies would depend on the location or depth and the “oxidizing content” of the part of the lake where they may have been buried.

“Because people decompose, they oxidize. Like leaves, when there is oxygen, they decompose easily. But when the oxygen is depleted at the bottom, they don’t decompose very much,” Solidum said.

He explained that the bodies will not be easily decomposed “if it’s a reducing environment.”

“That means there is not much oxygen. So we don’t know; if the buried material is shallow, maybe the conditions there are easy to decompose. But for others, for example, sometimes fish die in Taal Lake — fish kills — because sometimes the water at the bottom turns over, rises, and there is not much oxygen because it is a reducing environment,” Solidum said.

READ: 34 missing ‘sabungero’ buried in Taal Lake – report

“And it is a reducing environment because with the amount of leaves and feeds that sink there, the oxygen is used up because the organic matter is decomposing,” he added.

“So if that’s the condition there, at the very bottom, if it goes there, it will be a reducing environment; it is difficult to decompose. So it depends on the location,” the DOST chief further said.

On Friday, Justice Secretary Crispin Remulla said he has asked for the technical assistance from Japan to help search for the bodies of the missing sabungeros at Taal Lake.

This came after whistleblower Julie Dondon Aguilar Patidongan, also known as “Totoy,” recently revealed that the missing sabungeros were killed and their bodies were dumped into the lake three years ago.

READ: Remulla: Atong Ang, Gretchen Barreto to be named suspects in missing sabungeros’ case

The whistleblower also asserted that businessman Atong Ang and actress Gretchen Barretto were allegedly involved in the disappearances of the sabungeros that were first reported three years ago. /das