By Sen Guingguing
Sunday Post
The court recently upheld the war that Police Provincial Director Edgardo Ingking had waged since late 2007
against cockfighting on days other than Sundays and holidays and other forms of illegal gambling in the province.
In a seven-page decision dated January 26, 2009, Judge Teofilo Baluma of the Tagbilaran City- based Regional Trial Court Branch 1 denied the petition of two cockpit operators for an issuance of preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order on police operations that stopped the operation of their respective cockpits on days other than Sundays and holidays.
Tan and Mende filed the case in December 2007, a month after Ingking launched his all-out drive against all forms of gambling.
In junking the petitions of cockpit operators- -Arturo Tan of Duero and Peter Emman of Dauis, Baluma ruled that “there shall be considered no legal obstacle†for Provincial Police Director Edgardo Ingking “to implement the spirit and intent of Executive Order 02-A-01 issued by Governor Erico Aumentado†in 2003 which prohibits cockfighting activities anywhere in the province on days other than Sundays and holidays.
The governor’s EO was in accordance with Presidential Decree 449 or the Cockfighitng Law of 1974.
Baluma also cited the expiration of the respective municipal permits issued to Tan and Mende on December 31, 2008 and other permits from the local government units issued during the pendency of the case were deemed cancelled.
For several years, the cockpit operators had been operating and conducting cockfighting activities on Saturdays based on the authority that the respective SBs in their towns had granted them.
However, Baluma emphasized in his decision that "every local ordinance must not be contrary to a statute or the Constitution".
Duero Mayor Manuel Tan issued a business permit and an affidavit of waiver in favor of Arturo Tan. The municipality of Duero had also issued a certificate of award to Arturo Tan.
Mende has been issued a certification by the municipality of Dauis and a mayor’s permit.
Arturo Tan, through an SB resolution, and Mende, through a municipal ordinance, were authorized to conduct cockfighting on Saturdays instead Sundays in their respective towns.
Ingking, however, had stepped in their way in his crusade to stop cockfighting on days other than Sundays and legal holidays, citing PD 449 or the Cockfighting Law of 1974 and Aumentado’s EO 02-A-01- -both limiting cockfighting activities to Sundays and holidays.
The governor’s EO and PD 449 were among the strongest ammunition that the provincial police director had launched.
However, the governor’s EO was never implemented since its issuance in 2003, when members of the Bohol Cockpit Operators Association sought for a declaratory relief with preliminary injunction and restraining order. The court later junked the cockpit operators’ petition.
Ingking reportedly earned the ire of cockpit operators in the province as he waged a sweeping war against all forms of gambling in the province in November 2007.
His effort, at first, hit snag when the cockpit operators got a temporary restraining order (TRO) from the RTC during his initial poise to shut down cockpits that violate the EO and really arrest their operators and their patrons.
But the cockpit operators, like Arturo Tan and Mende, cited the authority and permits granted to them through mayor’s permits, ordinances and resolutions.
Baluma, however, pointed out that while the Local Government Code vested on the local government units the power to issue, regulate the operation of cockpits and cockfighting, the spirit of the law never caters for LGUs circumventing "the very purpose of the law to control and limit cockfighting".
Baluma also cited Section 5 of PD 449 which provides that only licensed cockpits are allowed operate on Sundays, legal holidays and during local fiestas but not for more than three days.
However, the law prohibits cockfights on holidays that are observed for national honor and pride such as Independence Day (June 12), Heroes Day (November 30) and Rizal Day (December 30).
He also pointed out that it "should neither be exploited as an object of commercialization or business enterprise nor a toll of uncontrolled gambling".
Linkback:
https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=18017.0
