President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday announced the end to online cockfighting or e-sabong operations.
Duterte, during his taped Talk to the People aired on Tuesday, said the official order will come by tonight or tomorrow.
The president explained he is halting e-sabong operations following the recommendation from Interior Secretary Eduardo Año, whose department carried out an internal survey investigating the operations.
"The recommendation of Secretary Año is to do away with e-sabong. He cited the validation report coming from all sources," he said.
"It's his recommendation and I agree with it and it is good so e-sabong will end by tonight," he said.
According to Duterte, the government was only after the P640 million tax earned through e-sabong, but it has been made clear to him that the operations are going against Filipinos' values.
"'Yung amin naman sana buwis lang ang hinahabol namin dito. P640 million is P640 million," he said.
(What we are after is the tax. P640 million is P640 million.)
"But may naririnig na ako, loud and very clear to me that it was working against our values and 'yung impact sa pamilya pati sa tao, ay ang labas, hindi na natutulog yung mga sabungero," he added.
(But I have been hearing things, loud and very clear to me that it was working against our values and that it has an impact on families and people, where at the end, cockfighters are no longer sleeping.)
Duterte's announcement came after he previously allowed e-sabong operations to continue despite controversies hounding them, including the case of missing persons.
The president explained back then that the government earns P640 million monthly from e-sabong operations, stressing that the government needs that sum of money.
