On a hill overlooking the small town of Banaue in northern Luzon sits a rickety shack, cobbled together with random timber left-overs and a corrugated iron roof. Improvised wooden seating around two sides of a hard packed, dirt floor arena hold an eager crowd of local men, anticipating today’s action in the cockpit, as the cock fighting space is known.
Naturally there’s more to the event than just the sport, or Sabong as it’s known here, it’s a chance to hang out, drink beer and possibly exchange chicken breeding tips but above all it’s about betting. Several touts stalk the cockpit before each match urging punters to put more money down on their preferred feathered fighter. A small sign sliding on a rope pulled diagonally across the pit is moved to indicate which bird is the Meron, with the highest bets or the Wala, the underdog.
A slow motion action replay would be a useful addition to the sport
When Covid restrictions put a halt to live matches an online industry quickly sprang into action when the government permitted internet betting, which soon raked in millions in taxes.
With big profits to be made, crime wasn’t far behind, either getting in on the betting action or violent debt retrieval. A series of unsolved abductions tells of yet more sinister undercurrents in the industry.
Touts taking bets before a match
In the capital Manila, where fights can attract crowds of up to 20 000 for the World Slasher Cup, there’s obviously a lot more incentive for the more dubious aspects of the sport. There were few signs of major criminal enterprise at the match in Banaue and I suspect that any such behaviour would require a donation to the local police benevolent fund if it did occur.
Some claim that Sabong originated several thousand years ago in the region but it was certainly well established before any Europeans turned up. Hence it is well rooted in local culture, so lectures on animal rights won’t get you many friends. It’s estimated that the sport gets through 30 million roosters a year! I can only assume that these are generally cooked and eaten afterwards.
Sizing up the opposition
The first key part of the match requires pairing up suitable opponents, it’s not just random qualifying rounds until only one rooster is left standing. Quite what determines the fighting characteristics of a bird, beyond its size, remains opaque to the uninitiated like me. Though like all domestic animals any breeder would be familiar with the signs of being well fed and cared for. There was often a protracted period of up to 15 minutes before each fight as trainers would compare birds, with everyone chipping in with their wisdom on whether a pairing was suitable.
Getting the birds into kill mode
With all the bets taken and recorded by an official, the opposing teams set about getting their birds sufficiently riled up by getting them to peck each other. Unlike the match I’d watched in Indonesia, the Philippine’s version has long blades attached to the rear of the bird’s feet. Most fights started with the cockerels appearing largely disinterested in each other before a sudden flurry of feathers and blades. Action could be intense but often over in thirty seconds or so and death surprisingly swift – no losing birds showed signs of life shortly after being carried out of the cockpit, if not before. Leaping over the opponent, whilst slashing down and backwards at the same time seemed to be the favoured manoeuvre to administer the coup de grace, as evidenced by the wounds. There was such hectic movement to most of the fights that it was hard to judge what was happening until one was wounded and one cut often was sufficient to seal the victims fate. To be honest, despite the fearsome weaponry, I found the unarmed version I saw in Indonesia more distressing as the suffering was dragged on well beyond the point at which one bird was clearly the winner.
Some of the weapons on sale
One fight had to be annulled when one of the cockerel’s blades worked loose. Needless to say trying to restrain a cockerel going ballistic in fight mode is no mean feat. This danger was made clear at one illegal fight raided by the police where a policeman was killed when a bird slashed open a vein. Some jobs are best left to the experts.
Given the scale of the industry and the profits to be made, both legal or otherwise, cock fighting is not going anywhere no matter how much it may offend Western sensibilities. Watching the sport certainly didn’t bring me any pleasure but I’m becoming increasingly convinced that Western moralising and lecturing non westerners over well established cultural values is not only ineffectual but yet another grievance to be added to the long list our actions have generated over the decades. If we are going to change minds it needs to be done by showing respect and understanding of cultures in order to create a constructive environment for discussion, so that in the longer term we can hopefully bring about change. Simply expressing outrage will just offend and end any discussion before it’s even started. We are also faced with the likely reality that I suspect that no matter what, cock fighting will remain popular, not just in the Philippines but much of SE Asia for well into the future.
