MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine embassy in Pretoria has protested an article in a leading newspaper in South Africa that featured horse-fighting as a “hugely popular” pastime in the Philippines.
In his report before the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Philippine Ambassador to South Africa Virgilio Reyes said the diplomatic mission in Pretoria sent a letter to the Weekend Argus, weekend edition of Cape Argus in Cape Town, to complain about the article which created an impression that Filipinos tolerated cruelty to animals.
Reyes said the article entitled “Tournament of Blood: The Sheer Horror of Horse-fighting,” written by Danny Penman left an impression that the Philippine government is allowing the savage sport.
Penman described the “horrific” tournaments as hugely popular in the Philippines where thousands of people watch the horse fights while drunk, placing bets on and jeering at the battling animals.
“Although the activity is illegal in the Philippines, corruption and lack of enforcement ensure that the tournaments continue and with apparent official sanction... (as) matches are featured on TV, local businesses sponsor horses and tournaments, (and) local authorities offer prize money,” the article said.
Penman ended his article with a call for readers to write the Philippine embassy to say that they will not visit the country.
Reyes said they were forced to write the Weekend Argus after the embassy was swamped with letters from concerned readers expressing their shock and horror at the practice.
The letter senders also vowed not to visit the Philippines and threatened to tell their friends to do the same.
In his response to the letters, as well as to the editor of the Weekend Argus, Reyes wrote that the Philippine government had declared the sport as illegal under Republic Act 8485 or the Animal Welfare Act of 1998.
Though the sport is part of tradition for some tribal Filipinos, Reyes said “the law has been successful in preventing horse-fighting as part of major festivals in Mindanao where the event used to be a feature.”
Reyes told the magazine that horse-fighting is not a common activity or general cultural tradition in the Philippines but merely an isolated cultural event practiced rarely by some tribes in the south.