Ombud urged: Probe Sogod mayor for illegal cockfighting

For allegedly allowing a cockfighting derby to be conducted inside the town’s sports complex, Sogod Mayor Lissa Marie “Moonyean” Durano-Streegan and other town officials are facing an illegal cockfighting complaint at the Office of the Ombudsman–Visayas (OMB–Visayas).

Axienas Montecillo and Natividad Branzuela, who are residents of Sogod, a northern town 61 km from Cebu City, refiled their complaint on May 22, 2017 against Mayor Durano-Streegan for allegedly allowing the holding of illegal cockfighting activities on five occasions at the Municipal Sports Complex.

Cebu Daily News received a copy of the letter-complaint submitted to the OMB–Visayas on Wednesday (August 23, 2017).

CDN tried to reach Durano-Streegan through her mobile phone on Saturday, but she could not be reached for comment.

Montecillo and Branzuela claimed in their complaint that the mayor and other town officials violated the Cockfighting Law for holding the 3-cock derby on a non-Sunday, a non-legal holiday and in a non-licensed cockpit.

They said that they refiled the complaint because the investigator of the Office of the Ombudsman allegedly did not bother to ask them to expound on their illegal cockfighting allegations against the town officials.

Montecillo and Branzuela said they filed the first complaint at the OMB–Visayas against the Sogod mayor and other town officials on Aug. 1, 2016 after the Department of Interior and Local Government, where they submitted the complaint first, referred them to the Ombudsman instead, citing that the office had no legal basis to handle it.

Montecillo and Branzuela claimed in their complaint that the 3-cock derby was held at the town’s sports complex on May 2016, the fifth time the derby was held there since 2014.

But Durano-Streegan, in her reply on September 2016 to the Ombudsman’s order to answer the complaint filed on August 2016, said that the holding of the 3-cock derby on May 24, 2016 was connected to the fiesta of Barangay Poblacion.

The request to hold the derby was endorsed by the barangay council through a resolution, and a municipal resolution was passed authorizing Mayor Durano-Streegan to issue a special permit for the event.

The mayor said in her reply that she begged to disagree that the holding of the cockfight violated the Cockfighting Law.

She added that cockfighting had already been part and parcel of Filipino culture and tradition especially during fiestas.

She also cited that the activity was for a noble purpose since the the proceeds of the 3-cock derby was also used to repair the basketball ring of the sports complex.

But she also said that to avoid any more misconceptions, she would no longer issue any mayor’s permit to anybody who would use the town’s sports and cultural center as a cockfighting venue.