Is Cockfighting a Heritage or Economics?

COCKFIGHTING is a national pastime. It has to be experienced for its excitement. The thrill and fervor follows after the betting. The Government classifies it as an amusement but is also a form of gambling since bets are taken.

Game fowls are trained for the event. Armed with razor sharp blades, two Cocks are released in the arena of death. The battle rage for a few minutes and whoever has the superior bloodline and good conditioning has a higher percentage of winning. The ground and air combat ends when a cock is unable to continue or when a slash wound is a so severe that a losing cock dies instantly. After the winner is declared, bets running to thousands and millions of pesos are collected either from the “Wala” or “Mayroon”. Then another match takes place.

Cockfighting in the Philippines is held simultaneously on Sundays. From the Municipality of Aparri down to Jolo bets change hands.  Big Derbies are held in honor of a town fiesta or anniversaries that brings in the prominent slashers and known game fowl breeders. There are also cockfights operated behind the scene in a form of “Tupada” that rings cash register from local official’s protection.  These events draw tourism and create opportunities for travel.

Behind the frenzied atmosphere, nostalgia and history takes us back to the Roman Empire era when Gladiators fight to death to gain their freedom. How much glory it has made to the ancient Romans, cockfighting in the Philippines takes its roots to become part of the Filipino heritage and culture. If only chicken can have a personality, they can be the most loyal warriors or heroes to their breeders?

Modern cockfighting has long influenced the economy. There are support industries that thrive on the production of special feeds and veterinary vitamins to supplement the fighting ability of the fighting cocks. Pilmico, General Milling and San Miguel Feeds lead in the animal nutrition industry and supply the food for the game fowls.  Infrastructures and farms are built using architecture and biological science to come out with the best farm building designs, breeding bloodlines and perfecting fighting forms. Cockfighting brings in the prominent people in the industry; the likes of Herman “Red Sweater” McGuiness, Sanford Hatch, Walter Kelso and their Filipino equals, the prominence of Jorge Araneta, Biboy “Thunderbird” Enriquez, Ompong Plaza , Manny Pacquiao  and  Ito Ynares and many others who are familiar personalities  at the Araneta Coliseum and at the World Slashers Cup. Big time politicians and businessmen are into the game.

Cockfights last a maximum of 10 minutes. Injuries or slash wounds could be bad or fatal. If one does not give up or expire ahead of the other, the referee picks them up. Both contenders are made to face each other. When one game fowl is dead or bows out to exhaustions, a winner is raised.

Bird medication after a fight goes only to the victor. The vanquish, barely breathing is taken to the conqueror’s kitchen. Head is chopped off then feathers are removed in a scorching boiling water. Cocks who have crowed their last and who fought a gallant fight meet their gruesome fate in the dining table either as an Adobo or a Chicken Tinola. In a poor country like the Philippines, there is no space for sentimentality, even prize fighters get eaten or made into a “pulutan”.

In many western countries in the world, cockfighting is outlawed. Despite best effort of foreign and animal’s rights group to abolish animal cruelty, the Philippines national sport will go online in a couple of months after the Election. A company controlled by Roberto Ongpin, Board of Investment Minister during the Marcos Era was able to license the Phil web Corporation, an internet gaming company from PAGCOR, the state gaming firm to launch the world’s first web based cockfighting betting. The online gaming is expected to generate a nationwide P60 Billion in annual revenues and provide industry employment. What a megabuck solution to our fiscal deficits which hits P298.5 Billion end of 2009? Will this internet gaming run counter to Presidential Decree No. 449, on the conduct of Cockfighting? The next Congress or Parliament knows not really the best but still should decide.

The economy of cockfighting is moving and growing in the 21st century. It has created business ventures in the manufacture and selling of costly special feeds, vitamins supplements, and chicken feather shampoo. It has produced books and magazines of cock breeding and best practices. To the point of attracting big business listed in the Philippines Stock Exchange.  Investors and veterinarians are doing everything in science and technology to save the chicken from the frying fan.