{"id":777000688,"date":"2022-12-02T13:58:13","date_gmt":"2022-12-02T16:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777000688"},"modified":"2026-04-23T02:23:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T05:23:50","slug":"philippine-families-call-for-progress-on-disappearances-linked-to-e-sabong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippine-families-call-for-progress-on-disappearances-linked-to-e-sabong","title":{"rendered":"Philippine families call for progress on disappearances linked to e-sabong"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Department of Justice has yet to recommend whether criminal charges should be filed against those allegedly responsible for the disappearances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Philippines.- Families are calling for action after a lack of progress in investigations of the 34 disappearances connected to the e-sabong industry<\/a> between April 2021 and January 2022. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former President Rodrigo Duterte eventually bowed to pressure and suspended legal online cockfighting<\/a> in May after 23 senators signed Resolution No. 996 calling for a suspension<\/strong>. But after months of investigation, little progress has been made in relation to the disappearances that sparked the ban.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Families of the missing cockfight bettors met with justice secretary\u00a0Jesus Crispin Remulla\u00a0<\/strong>today (December 2) and called for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to make progress on its investigation. However, Remulla did not respond to questions about what was causing the delay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Thursday, the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and the family of another missing e-sabong bettor, Michael Bautista, filed a complaint for kidnapping and serious illegal detention with the DOJ against 2 people allegedly identified in a cellphone video filmed in Laguna in April last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The police reportedly saw the identification of the two as a major breakthrough in the case, but Remulla said it was too early to say whether a criminal group was behind the disappearances. According to ABS-CBN News, Remulla promised that authorities would continue to search and investigate and offered to meet regularly with the missing Sabungeros’ family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Department of Justice has yet to recommend whether criminal charges should be filed against those allegedly responsible for the disappearances.<\/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":"Investigations into the disappearance of 34 individuals linked to the e-sabong industry in the Philippines between April 2021 and January 2022 continue to face delays, despite a government-imposed ban on online cockfighting. Families of the missing are pressing the Department of Justice (DOJ) for progress, highlighting significant regulatory and governance challenges within the sector.","focusai_entities":"Department of Justice, Rodrigo Duterte, Jesus Crispin Remulla, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, Michael Bautista, ABS-CBN News","focusai_location":"Philippines, Laguna","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.8), operator_casino (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Regulatory Framework Review","query":"What specific enhancements to the iGaming regulatory framework, particularly concerning B2B\/B2C licensing, AML protocols, and operator accountability, are being considered by the Philippine government to prevent similar governance failures in other gaming verticals?"},{"label":"Investor Confidence Impact","query":"How will the prolonged uncertainty surrounding the e-sabong disappearances and subsequent ban impact foreign direct investment and the capital markets' perception of regulatory stability within the broader Philippine iGaming sector?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[439,16333],"tags":[24019,23911],"class_list":["post-777000688","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\/777000688","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=777000688"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777000688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777000696,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777000688\/revisions\/777000696"}],"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=777000688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777000688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777000688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}