The 324 cockfighting bettors and cockpit employees were brought in buses to the Mandaue City court during the filing of cases against them on Augsut 7. They were all released on Friday. | CDNDigital file photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The police should provide a proper detention facility for those, who will be arrested, no matter how many people they have arrested.
The Commission on Human Rights Central Visayas (CHR-7) said this amid the arrest of more than 300 men and women in D and C Coliseum last August 5 in Sitio Estancia, Barangay Ibabao, Mandaue City for violation of Presidential Decree 449 or the Cockfighting Law.
Because of their number, those arrested were detained in an open space inside Camp Sotero Cabahug in Gorordo Avenue, Cebu City.
The cockpit raid was conducted by the operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Central Visayas (CIDG-7).
Read more: 324 men arrested in cockpit raid spend another night in Camp Sotero Cabahug
Leo Villarino, CHR-7 special investigator, said in a phone interview with CDN Digital that the police would bear the responsibility of keeping those that they had arrested in a safe and secure area to prepare them when they would face trials of the charges that would be filed against them.
“It is incumbent upon the CIDG to find humane detention facilities as those arrested are still presumed innocent until proven otherwise by the court,” said Vilarino.
During the four-day stay of the arrested persons, some of them aired their complaints and concerns to the media which were mostly about their lack of sleep as there was no proper place for them to lie down because majority of them were outside on an open space.
Villarino said that the CIDG could not just be “overwhelmed by the number” of individuals that they had arrested.
“They might just have to arrange for their possible release the soonest,” said Villarino.
Read more: Most of 309 arrested bettors plead guilty of illegal gambling, sentenced, released
Four days or on August 9 after the 309 cockfighting bettors and 15 D and C cockpit employees were arrested, they were all released.
The 309 bettors and 6 of the 15 cockpit employees pleaded guilty to illegal gambling in a Mandaue City Court. They were sentenced to three days in prison and were told to pay a fine of P1,500.
However, they were released because they already were detained for four days, which were one day more than the sentence imposed by the judge for their crime.
They were also allowed not to pay the P1,500 fine because of their spending one day more than the the three-day jail sentence imposed by the judge.
Meanwhile, the nine other employees of the D and C cockpit, who pleaded not guilty to illegal gambling charge, were released after paying bail set at P30,000 each.
Police Major Edwin Lacostales, CIDG-7 chief, also told CDN Digital that all of the 324 arrested during the August 5 cockpit raid had been released.
Lacostales clarified that the judge completed hearing the cases of the 324 arrested persons and so they were all released on Friday.
Read more: Men arrested at Mandaue cockpit ask police to go after management, not bettors
Meanwhile, Lacostales also said that they still had not filed a case against D and C Coliseum cockpit owners because they were still gathering evidence and studying the case to file against them./dbs