{"id":30564,"date":"2022-06-08T03:20:48","date_gmt":"2022-06-08T06:20:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=30564"},"modified":"2026-04-23T07:59:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T10:59:54","slug":"philippines-3-arrested-over-illegal-e-sabong-website","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippines-3-arrested-over-illegal-e-sabong-website","title":{"rendered":"Philippines: 3 arrested over illegal e-sabong website"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Three people have been arrested for violating President Duterte&#8217;s ban on e-sabong operations in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>The Philippines.- Three people have been arrested in Tondo, Manila, as part of a series of operations following President Rodrigo Duterte&#8217;s <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippines-president-changes-his-mind-and-orders-e-sabong-ban\" target=\"_blank\">ban on e-sabong operations<\/a>. Those arrested are accused of operating a website that offered e-sabong. Police seized computer desktops, cellphones, three local area network routers and money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to local media, the three people would be the first to have been arrested on suspicion of running e-sabong (online cockfighting) operations since the ban, which Duterte introduced under pressure following the disappearance of people connected to the industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Authorities have asked Meta, the parent company of social media platform Facebook, to\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/authorities-in-the-philippines-ask-facebook-to-remove-e-sabong-pages\" target=\"_blank\">block pages promoting e-sabong operations<\/a>. However,\u00a0<strong>Jonathan Malaya<\/strong>, the DILG Undersecretary, criticised Facebook for its slow action in the face of repeated requests from the agency to block e-sabong pages.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Malaya said the social media platform only took action after being shamed by his accusations of inaction and negligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile,\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/senators-call-for-investigation-of-e-sabong-employees-over-disappearances\" target=\"_blank\">the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs<\/a>\u00a0has called for the Philippine National Police and the National Bureau of Investigation to investigate employees at Lucky 8 Star Quest. According to a committee report, people connected to the industry who disappeared were last seen at arenas operated by the e-sabong firm.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three people have been arrested for violating President Duterte&#8217;s ban on e-sabong operations in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":20663,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Philippine authorities have initiated enforcement actions against illegal e-sabong operations, leading to the arrest of three individuals in Manila for operating an unlicensed online cockfighting website. This follows President Duterte's ban, prompted by disappearances linked to the industry, and highlights ongoing regulatory challenges, including the DILG's criticism of Meta's slow compliance in blocking illicit content. Concurrently, the Senate is investigating Lucky 8 Star Quest in connection with the disappearances.","focusai_entities":"President Duterte, Jonathan Malaya, DILG, Meta, Facebook, Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs, Philippine National Police, National Bureau of Investigation, Lucky 8 Star Quest","focusai_location":"Philippines, Tondo, Manila","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.8), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (0.7), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Regulatory Enforcement Impact","query":"What are the broader implications for other unregulated or grey-market iGaming verticals in the Philippines following this intensified enforcement against e-sabong?"},{"label":"Platform Accountability","query":"How will the DILG's public criticism of Meta's response time influence future regulatory demands on social media platforms regarding the moderation of illegal gambling content globally?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[439,16333],"tags":[24019],"class_list":["post-30564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-e-sabong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30564","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=30564"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30590,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30564\/revisions\/30590"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}