A sack filled with "burned objects and stones" to make it sink got torn while Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) divers were retrieving it from the Taal Lake in Batangas during a diving operation to search for the remains of the 34 missing cockfighting enthusiasts (sabungeros) on Saturday afternoon, July 12.

Commodore Geronimo Tuvilla, commander of Coast Guard District Southern Tagalog (CGDST), said divers were still able to recover the sack and its contents as they were placed inside a fine mesh net to preserve the integrity of the possible pieces of evidence.

The divers recovered two suspicious sacks during the 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. diving operations in Barangay Balakilong, Laurel, Batangas, but one of them was damaged during retrieval operations, possibly contaminating its contents.

“We have recovered two sacks with objects. Noong kinakapa, medyo solid in nature, may mix na debris sa bottom. Itong nakuha natin may sort of sinker na pampabigat, stones din (We have recovered two sacks containing objects. When they touched it, the contents were somewhat solid in nature, with a mix of debris at the bottom. The ones we recovered had some sort of sinker for added weight, there were stones in it),” Tuvilla said.

“Mayroong part doon na kailangan balikan. ‘Yun ‘yung probably nakabutas sa sack, ‘yung mga bato. We don’t know what type of rocks or stones were placed para sa sinker. We cannot say much about that and investigation side na iyon (There’s a part there that we need to go back to. That’s probably where the sack got torn, maybe because of the rocks. We don’t know what type of rocks or stones were used as the sinker. We can’t say much about that, that falls under the investigation side),” he added.

Tuvilla said the retrieval was made difficult by the murky waters at the bottom of the lake.

“That's the challenge, poor visibility and the rough sea conditions,” he said.

The discovery appeared to match the earlier claims of whistleblower Julie “Dondon/Totoy” Patidongan that the missing sabungeros were killed and their remains were placed inside a sack with sinkers before being dumped in Taal Lake.

Tuvilla said the divers have seen and felt more suspicious items at the bottom of the lake which will be retrieved when they resume their operations.

“As much as we can, lahat ng kaya naming gawin para makatulong kami sa investigation at maibsan naming ang kalungkutan ng mga pamilya ng mga nawwala at hinahanap, gagawin ng PCG (As much as we can, the PCG will do everything within our ability to help in the investigation and ease the grief of the families of the missing and those being searched for),” he said.