Something seems to be brewing out of a quick response survey on the contentious e-Sabong — a state-of-the-art version of “sabong” or cockfight, which is an online off-site gambling on live cockfights, streamed from an enclosed cockpit.
Though slightly different from traditional sabong mechanics, e-Sabong bettors wager through online or remote means. Operators help in bridging them with agents who send them their winnings via virtual wallets.
As e-Sabong eventually found its way to the virtual environment at the height of the pandemic in 2020, the government’s information arm, the Philippine Information Agency, recently followed suit with an online survey among stakeholders on their experiences and views on e-Sabong.
The tight four-day data gathering, from 29 November to 2 December, is said to be part of PIA’s research support for “policy-making” purposes, so says a memorandum to all regional heads and offices, signed by PIA Director General Ramon L. Cualoping III on dated 29 November.
For all the survey’s intents and purposes, all 16 PIA regions and information centers across 78 provinces in the country were mobilized to submit accomplished online forms by 5 December.
From a survey question, it appears would-be respondents are those who have direct involvement in e-Sabong because they are asked what best describes them by ticking any of the following options: game fowl farm owners or breeders; cockpit arena owner or operator; cockfighting derby organizer or promoter; bet taker, agents, employees / workers, handlers, gaffers, referees, cock doctors, other personnel; and, bettors or players / sabongeros.
Since after the e-Sabong operations were ordered suspended by then-President Rodrigo R. Duterte on 3 May 2022 sparked by the disappearance of more than 30 e-sabungeros and concerns about the social costs of gambling, public relations firms and lobbyists abound.
With reckless disregard for the social cost of a “lucrative and deadly betting craze” as described by Jacob Smith in his 29 July 2022 article posted on www.casino.org, lobbyists attempt to engage journalists, and other sectors to run a script that the e-Sabong suspension caused the economic sufferings of thousands.
“Such widespread gambling addiction soon caused several social problems, nearly all of them motivated by money.” Many individuals rapidly fell into debt, selling all their possessions to fuel their addiction or turning to crime to pay off the debts.
Reports throughout this time included robberies committed by indebted police corporals and a mother so desperate she allegedly sold her child,” Smith said.
A mother from Pasig City reportedly pawned her eight-month-old daughter for P45,000 cash to pay for a debt she incurred in e-Sabong. She pleaded for help to recover her child.
With its silent ill effects on people’s lives, thousands, perhaps millions including overseas Filipinos, suffer the cost of degraded self-esteem, affected relationships, physical and mental health, work performance, and social life — family, friends, workplace, and community.
There is a baffling effect that goes with the online survey. The resurrection of the multi-billion revenue source is incomprehensible because what the government will earn from e-Sabong cannot justify the social cost.
e-Sabong is not a solution and will never be. Finding moral deals that will create sustainable jobs and improve the quality of life of Filipinos bearing the brunt of inflation, is, not online surveys that will ultimately gamble away people’s lives!
Aren’t the innumerable research studies, including that of the Department of the Interior and Local Government in April 2022, that validated the disastrous impacts of e-Sabong addiction that compromises, the value of Filipino families, enough?