Torre to lead search for missing sabungeros

MANILA, Philippines —  Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Nicolas Torre III is willing to lead search operations to locate the remains of 34 sabungeros or cockfight enthusiasts who are believed buried in Taal Lake in Batangas.

PNP spokesperson Brig. Gen. Jean Fajardo said Torre wants to be personally involved in efforts to locate the sabungeros after one of the suspects, who wants to be a state witness, claimed that the victims were buried in Taal.

“The chief PNP is willing to go to the area and find the exact spot that the suspect was saying,” Fajardo told journalists over the phone yesterday.

The case of the missing sabungeros is one of the cases that Torre investigated when he was chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.

On Tuesday night, the suspect, identified only as alias Totoy, claimed the victims were strangled to death with a wire before they were dumped into the lake.

Totoy was one of the six security guards at the Manila Arena where 10 of the 34 missing sabungeros were last seen.

The PNP identified the other guards as Virgilio Bayog, Gleer Codilla, Johnry Consolacion, Roberto Matillano Jr., Julie Patidongan and Mark Carlo Zabala.

The guards are facing charges of kidnapping and serious illegal detention in connection with the disappearance of the sabungeros in 2021.

They were arrested in Parañaque in 2023, but were released after the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 40 granted them bail.

Fajardo said the PNP would coordinate with the television network that interviewed Totoy.

She said the PNP would talk to Totoy and provide him and his family security.

Fajardo said Totoy’s information is vital in identifying people behind the disappearance of the sabungeros.

“We will use the information to have the case reopened. We will strengthen the case that was filed earlier,” she said.

Fajardo said the PNP is hoping that Totoy would cooperate and pinpoint the exact location where the sabungeros were buried.

As this developed, the Department of Justice  (DOJ) said it would study Totoy’s claims and is willing to conduct search and retrieval operations once the information is verified.

“Once we determine the veracity of the information, we will need tactical divers to do it, because it is deep. It is not easy to go into the lakebed to look for human remains,” Justice Secretary Crispin Remulla said yesterday.

Remulla said the testimony of Totoy could be credible although investigators have to vet it with the testimonies of other witnesses.

He assured the families of the victims that the DOJ would exert all efforts to find the remains of their missing loved ones.

Remulla said a case buildup is ongoing and the testimony of Totoy could still be used by state prosecutors once it is properly verified.

Meanwhile, Supreme Court spokesperson Camille Sue Mae Ting said the security guards has filed a petition before the SC, questioning a decision of the Court of Appeals, which nullifed the bail granted to them by the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 40.

Ting said the SC has yet to act on the petition as the magistrates are on a break. She said the high tribunalwould resume session on July 1. –  Elizabeth Marcelo