City decides today on increasing number of cockpits

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Council has yet to make this afternoon the final deliberation on the ordinance increasing to six the number of cockpits in the city, but a businessman is already planning to operate a cockpit along M. J. Cuenco Avenue in Barangay Tejero.

Victoriano R. Chiongbian, the proprietor of Century Game Club, a cockpit in Sitio Banawa, Guadalupe, wrote Tejero Barangay Captain Jessielou Cadungog of his plan to establish a cockpit in the area currently occupied by the Eastern Shipping Lines Yard.

 Even before Chiongbian’s proposal could take off, however, some barangay officials in Tejero are already expressing objections to his plan. Most of the opposition to the proposal is anchored on the premise that it is not the barangay that collects fees from the cockpit, but the City Treasurer’s Office.

The National Cockfighting Law also provides that it is the local government unit that is empowered to regulate and issue licenses or franchise to cockpits that will operate in its area.

In this afternoon’s regular session of the City Council, the legislators will take up the proposed ordinance of Councilor Sylvan “Jack” Jakosalem to increase the number of cockpits - three for the south district and another three for the north, in order to allow the operation of a cockpit in Barangay Inayawan.

The RMI Cockpit Arena in Barangay Inayawan is applying for a franchise before the City Council but because the city already has cockpits in Barangay Sawang Calero and in Banawa, Guadalupe, the new cockpit could not be granted a permit. The existing city ordinance allows only two cockpits in the south and another two in the north.

The City Council invited to a public hearing two weeks ago representatives of Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal and other religious leaders, but none responded to the invitation.

Mayor Tomas R. Osmeña is not against the increase in the number of cockpits, saying it would be difficult to stop the culture of the Filipinos. — THE FREEMAN