President Rodrigo Duterte has decided to end the operations of e-sabong or online sabong.

According to the President, “the recommendation of Secretary Año is to do away with e-sabong… So, since it’s his recommendation and I agreed with it and it’s good. So e-sabong will end by tonight (Monday night).”

In its recommendation, DILG reasoned the disappearance of some e-sabong aficionados (sabungeros) which started late last year but remains unsolved up to this day. 

The Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group has already filed kidnapping and robbery charges against five police officers and “several John Does” who might be involved in the alleged kidnappings. 

Despite the fact that the government is earning millions of pesos in e-sabong, President Duterte acknowledges that e-sabong is a “social problem”. This is because the game is luring many Filipino families, including minors and police officers.

“The only reason, the sole and only reason why I, we in the Executive department, allowed it kasi ang estimate ni (because the estimate of) [Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation chair and CEO] Ms. [Andrea] Domingo is that it would help us something like PHP640 million a month. That would give us at the end of the year billions,” he said.

featured image courtesy of Global Daily Mirror