More than 300 persons arrested inside the D and C Coliseum in Mandaue City for alleged illegal cockfighting activity are detained at the Cebu City Police Office following their arrest on August 5, 2019. | CDND FILE PHOTO / Alven Marie Timtim
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The more than 300 persons who were arrested for an alleged illegal cockfighting activity and detained at the Cebu City Police Office in Camp Sotero Cabahug, Gorordo Avenue, Cebu City were cooperative and responsible during their four-day detention.
This was how Police Major Edwin Lacostales, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Central Visayas (CIDG 7), described the demeanor of the bettors who were arrested in the raid at the D and C Coliseum in Mandaue City on August 5, 2019, and who were held in the open ground at the CCPO headquarters.
According to Lacostales, the CIDG 7 conducted daily interaction with the bettors during the four days that they were detained to help them understand that they needed to be patient while documents were being readied for the filing of the charges against them.
“First time nu’ng iba. Na bigla sa una hanggang sa na tanggap na nila. Naliwanagan naman sila (It was the first time for some of them. They were at first taken aback [by their arrest] but they learned to accept it. They understood why),” said Lacostales.
He said CIDG personnel also worked hard to stay patient amid complaints of hunger, thirst and discomfort from the bettors, particularly during the first 24 hours of their detention.
Although the area in CCPO developed a foul smell of urine in the first 12 hours of detention due to the lack of comfort rooms, it was solved when four portable toilets arrived from the city government of Mandaue.
Lacostales said they also asked the bettors to help them keep the area clean.
When the bettors were released last Friday, August 9, 2019, the CCPO was left with minimal cleaning to do as the bettors also brought home the cardboard boxes that some used as sleeping mats. / elb