CALOOCAN City Mayor Oscar Malapitan on Saturday night turned over to Manila one of his barangay chairmen and three “kagawad” (councilmen) who led an illegal cockfight game inside the Manila North Cemetery on Good Friday in violation of illegal gambling laws and strict quarantine regulations being implemented to control the COVID-19 outbreak.
In a Facebook post uploaded late Saturday, the Manila Public Information Office said barangay chairman Brix John Rolly Reyes and councilmen Alfie Lacson, Romualdo Reyes, and John Cris Domingo, all of Barangay 129, gave themselves up to Malapitan on Saturday after they learned that Manila Mayor Isko Moreno has given them 48 hours to surrender.
The city government of Manila has determined that the four barangay leaders were the brains behind the “tupada” or illegal cockfighting at the Manila North Cemetery. A video of the illegal cockfight went viral on the internet.
Over the weekend, Moreno was said to have sought the assistance of Malapitan in locating the four erring officials. A video went viral showing the Manila mayor in Caloocan City in search of the four.
The four were turned over by Malapitan to the Caloocan City Police Station, which in turn surrendered them to the Manila Police District.
The police are now preparing to file charges of violations of anti-illegal gambling law, the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Event of Public Health Concern, and resistance and disobedience in relation to the Declaration of the State of Public Health Emergency throughout the country.
