Anti-cybercrime operatives of the Philippine National Police (PNP) arrested a 31-year old man tagged as an operator of the online sabong (cockfighting) in a follow-up operation in Pasig City on Tuesday, June 21.
Online sabong is now illegal after President Duterte ordered the suspension of its operation due to complaints that minors were allowed to bet and that the addiction to the game resulted in a number of bettors incurring millions in debt.
In some cases, some of them engaged into illegal activities, including a mother who sold her child and some cops engaging in robbery to sustain their addiction to online sabong.
Based on the report from the Anti-Cybercrime Group of the Philippine National Police, the suspect, whom the police refused to identify, is a master agent of online sabong. He was collared in Barangay Pinagbuhatan.
The operation stemmed from a tip-off that the suspect has been looking for bettors for online sabong.
An undercover agent of the ACG was then sent to the area and was able to transact with the suspect. It was then that the undercover agent was convinced to create an online account for the e-sabong.
"After creating the account, the operative gained access to the live e-sabong operation and participated in placing bets. This prompted the operatives to immediately effect the arrest of the said agent," said Police Brig. Gen. Bowenn Masauding, PNP-ACG director.
The suspect is now under the custody of ACG and was slapped with violations of Presidential Decree (PD) No. 1602 (Prescribing Stiffer Penalties on Illegal Gambling) and Section 8 of PD No. 449 (Cockfighting Law of 1974) in relation to Sec. 6 of RA 10175 also known as Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.
Masauding said they are now conducting further investigation to gain leads as to the identities and location of the online cockfighting operations.
The PNP ACG investigators also referred the identified website to the Department of Information and Communications Technology.