{"id":30399,"date":"2022-06-02T06:38:30","date_gmt":"2022-06-02T09:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=30399"},"modified":"2026-04-23T08:09:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T11:09:07","slug":"senators-call-for-investigation-of-e-sabong-employees-over-disappearances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/senators-call-for-investigation-of-e-sabong-employees-over-disappearances","title":{"rendered":"Senators call for investigation of e-sabong employees over disappearances"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A report has revealed that the disappeared were last seen at arenas operated by e-sabong firm Lucky 8 Star Quest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Philippines.- Investigations continue into\u00a0the disappearance of more than 30 people<\/a>\u00a0linked to the online cockfighting industry. The Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs has called for the Philippine National Police and the National Bureau of Investigation to investigate employees at Lucky 8 Star Quest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a committee report, the people who disappeared were last seen at arenas operated by the e-sabong firm.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senator Ronald de la Rosa<\/strong>, chair of the Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs, said 32 people were missing, down from 34 initially reported and that the cases were believed to be related to match-fixing. He suggested those who have disappeared may have been executed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of eight cases brought, the senator said two have been “resolved” and that suspects already face charges of kidnapping and obstruction of justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The committee’s report also proposes that if e-sabong operations are allowed again in the future, a new law should be made in order to regulate the industry and to limit operations to Sundays and legal holidays. President Duterte finally gave in and banned e-sabong operations<\/a> last month as a result of the disappearances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authorities in the Philippines ask Facebook to remove e-sabong pages<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) <\/strong>has asked Facebook to block pages promoting online cockfights. DILG Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya <\/strong>has submitted a request listing seven Facebook pages, groups, and accounts identified by the PNP Anti-Cyber Crime Group as catering to illegal e-sabong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The department has thanked the Central Bank of the Philippines for heeding\u00a0President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s call to stop e-Sabong operations\u00a0in the country by immediately ordering its bank-regulated financial institutions to remove all e-Sabong operators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A report has revealed that the disappeared were last seen at arenas operated by e-sabong firm Lucky 8 Star Quest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":14645,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Investigations into the disappearance of over 30 individuals linked to the e-sabong industry in the Philippines have led to a nationwide ban on online cockfighting operations by President Duterte. The Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs is investigating Lucky 8 Star Quest, where the missing were last seen, amidst allegations of match-fixing and potential executions. Regulatory bodies, including the DILG and the Central Bank, have initiated actions to enforce the ban, including requesting Facebook to block illegal e-sabong pages and instructing financial institutions to cease transactions with operators.","focusai_entities":"Lucky 8 Star Quest, Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs, Philippine National Police, National Bureau of Investigation, Ronald de la Rosa, President Duterte, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Jonathan Malaya, Central Bank of the Philippines, Facebook, PNP Anti-Cyber Crime Group","focusai_location":"Philippines","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), affiliate_publisher (0.8), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Regulatory Framework Impact","query":"What specific governance frameworks and B2B\/B2C licensing reforms would be required to enable a compliant re-entry of the e-sabong vertical, mitigating the identified criminal and social risks?"},{"label":"Financial Institution Exposure","query":"How will the Central Bank's directive impact financial institutions' existing relationships with iGaming operators, and what enhanced due diligence measures are now mandated for transaction monitoring and AML compliance?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[439,16333],"tags":[24019,23911],"class_list":["post-30399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-e-sabong","tag-gambling-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30399"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30417,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30399\/revisions\/30417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}