Bacolod City – The Sangguniang Panlungsod is seeking clarification from the Philippine National Police, through P/Col. Noel Aliño, on the legal basis of the holding of cockfights during fiesta and/or charter day celebration in the different barangays of the city.
The resolution authored by Councilor Al Victor Espino said City Ordinance No. 506, series of 2009 grants authority to the Sangguniang to issue special permits for special cockfights in Bacolod City for specified purposes, and defined a licensed cockpit as ” a cockpit which has been issued the permit and the authority to operate as such by the city after complying with all the requirements as so provided for under C.O. 87 series of 1993.”
The power to regulate cockfights was devolved to the local government unit through the enactment of the Local Government Code of 1991 as it superseded/repealed the Cockfighting Law of 1974, it said.
It was stated in the DILG Opinion No. 131, series of 2022 that: “With the passage of R.A. 7160, the authority to license the establishment and operation of cockfighting has been expressly granted to the Sangguniang,” the resolution said.
Pursuant to the city ordinance passed by the City Council providing regulation, including the establishment of cockpits, the said ordinance has never been challenged or declared void and unconstitutional before the proper courts, and in fact, the City Council was even vindicated of the charges filed against them in relation to the issuance of special permits to the barangays before the Court of Appeals in a decision dated Dec. 8, 2021 docketed as CA GR. SP No. 11346 and 11349, it added. (Chrysee Semillano via The Visayan Daily Star (TVDS), photo courtesy of TVDS)