Cockfighting feels heat of anti-jueteng drive

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — If the sons of jueteng have fallen on lean times, so too now have the cockfighting aficionados.

Sabong fans here say that with the illegal numbers game reduced to a jueteng-and-run affair following the exposé of Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis "Chavit" Singson that dragged the Estrada administration into the muck, big-time derbies are also headed for a slump.

Most cockfighting operators are either abroad or under fire because, as sure as night follows day, they are also the same alleged jueteng lords.

"The biggest cockfighting bettors here are also suspected jueteng lords," said one afficionado who asked not to be named.

A cockpit arena source recalled that only two months ago, Charlie "Atong" Ang, the main object of Singson’s jueteng exposé, was one of the bettors in a four-cock derby sponsored by suspected gambling lord Rodolfo "Bong" Pineda at the Pampanga Coliseum in Barangay Maimpis.

The follicle-challenged Pineda is in the United States for a hair transplant.

Ang’s huge bet during the derby put the kristos or bet solicitors in a bind, as they had some difficulty finding a match for Ang’s P2.2-million wager until someone took up the challenge by shouting, "Larga!"

That somewhat nasal voice in the crowd turned out to be Melchor Caliwan’s, better known as Ngongo, also a reputed jueteng lord here and in neighboring towns. Ngongo was said to have left the cockpit arena richer by P2.2 million.

There are also reports that Ngongo has taken advantage of the renewed crackdown on illegal gambling by staging guerrilla jueteng operations, where draws and payoffs are conducted in an ambulant vehicle.

But Ngongo has also apparently become prudent by asking that his name be scrapped from a billboard that used to identify him as the owner of a three-story building now under construction along the Gapan-San Fernando-Olongapo Highway in Barangay Dolores here.

However, cockfighting for Ngongo is likely to be less exciting in the coming days, and tinola all the more scarce on the dinner table, with other derby aficionados expected to remain unavailable indefinitely.

Local cockfighters are not even sure that Ngongo would show up in another derby slated to be sponsored by Pineda - with or without new feathers on his scalp - at the Pampanga Coliseum on Oct. 23.