Iloilo City Councilor Romel Duron is advocating to regulate cockfighting in the southern city. In a recent regular session of the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP), Duron’s proposal hurdled the first reading and was referred to the Committee on Games and Amusement which Duron also chairs.
Duron said, “Despite being a tradition, cockfighting should be regulated.”
Iloilo City has no local ordinance that regulates cockfighting. According to Duron, the Presidential Decree 449, or the Cockfighting Law of 1974 only specified when regular, special, and international cock derbies could be held, and therefore was not enough.
For his proposed ordinance. Duron wanted to clarify how else the city government could benefit from cockfighting. He noted that the cockfighting industry in Iloilo was already generating employment and revenues for both the city government and local businesses.
Among those, however, Duron wanted to regulate the number of cockfighting hours. Furthermore, he noted the pending bills in Congress that gave local government units the authority to issue licenses to cockpits and regulate the conduct of cockfighting.
Earlier this year, the city council passed a resolution for the conduct of an investigation into the alleged violation of the operator of Iloilo Coliseum for holding cockfighting activities from January 30 to 31 in line with the celebration of the Fest of Nuestra Señora dela Candelaria despite not having been granted yet with a Resolution of No Objection from the SP.
