Sack of bones, Duterte drug war add to growing Philippine cock fighters mystery

Three sacks pulled from Taal Lake as justice secretary notes ‘intersection’ in drug war operations and cock fighters’ deaths

Three sacks weighted with sandbags recovered from the depths of a Philippine volcanic crater lake have added a dramatic new twist to the chilling case of at least 34 missing cock fighters, bolstering claims by a whistle-blower that the killings were orchestrated by a gambling tycoon with powerful political and police connections.

The first sack, pulled from the murky waters of Taal Lake on Thursday, contained charred bones, according to the Department of Justice. Forensic tests have yet to determine if the remains are human. Two more sacks were retrieved the following day, though authorities have not yet opened them.

Commodore Geronimo Tuvilla, commander of the Coast Guard Southern Tagalog District, told reporters the two sacks contained “suspicious objects”. They did not open them because these looked very fragile, having been soaked in water for a long time.

“As long as weather is permitting, our guys won’t stop looking,” he said, adding that diving for these objects was a very risky operation. “Every time they do the dive, our divers are putting themselves in grave danger.”

The discoveries were made near Balakilong village in Laurel, Batangas – about 83km (51.5 miles) south of Manila – by a Philippine Coast Guard dive team comprising 36 technical wreck divers. The search zone lies about 16 metres to 22 metres (52 feet to 72 feet) from the shoreline, with divers reaching depths of up to 21.8 metres.

The coastguard said it also planned to deploy an underwater drone to assist the probe. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, however, has expressed concern about rising pressure inside Taal Volcano, noting persistent volcanic tremors since July 6.

Taal is a popular tourist spot featuring one of the country’s most active volcanoes, which has a lake within a lake inside its crater.

Authorities fear an eruption could bury any evidence inside the crater.

The case of the missing cock fighters broke wide open on June 26 when a man nicknamed “Totoy” spoke to local TV network GMANews and pointed to gambling tycoon Charlie “Atong” Ang as the “mastermind” who had the cock fighters killed.

Totoy claimed Ang’s celebrity partner Gretchen Barretto was “complicit” in the crime, adding that the bodies were dumped inside Taal Lake.

A week later on July 3, Ang named the mysterious Totoy as Julie “Dondon” Patidongan, his former right-hand man in operating the cockpits. Ang filed multiple criminal lawsuits against Patidongan and a certain Alan Bantiles, alias “Brown”, accusing them of conspiracy to commit attempted robbery with intimidation, grave threats, grave coercion and grave slander.

Ang claimed Patidongan tried to extort 300 million pesos (US$5.3 million) from him.

During a press conference after his filing, Ang told Patidongan to “think carefully and stop lying. I treated you like my own son. I didn’t know you were this evil. You would even kill me, kidnap me”.

The Philippine National Police has since revealed that Patidongan had approached the force as early as a year ago and conveyed what he had disclosed to the media last month. In 2023, Patidongan was among the six suspects named by police in a “Wanted” poster with a bounty of 1 million pesos each for any information leading to their capture.

Unhandled type: inline-plus-widget {“type”:”inline-plus-widget”}

“We found his story very, very compelling,” police chief Nicolas Torre III told the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines on Tuesday.

Torre, who was at the time the head of the criminal investigation and detection group, said he had ordered a background check on the whistle-blower and did the case build-up. He said Patidongan showed them videos, papers and documents.

“He pointed to other people in another case and he checked out indeed. That’s the reason why we found him credible as a witness,” Torre said. By the time the general approached the Department of Justice for a “multi-agency cooperation” in March, “we have quite a thick folder … already”.

Torre confirmed that Patidongan was now under police protection.

In a separate media briefing on Monday, the police chief confirmed that 15 officers linked to the case were under “restrictive custody” inside Camp Crame, the main headquarters.

“We have placed the several police personnel under restrictive custody pending the investigation into the missing sabungeros [cock fighters]. That we can confirm. And we have partnered with the National Police Commission for an in-depth investigation of this case,” he said.

On Wednesday, Department of Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla noted a pattern based on the mounting evidence – that there appeared to be “an intersection” in the operations of the drug war of former president Rodrigo Duterte and the killings of the cock fighters.

“The suspects in the drug war, who were killing the [drug addicts], may also have participated in the killing of the sabungeros,” he said.

The presidential palace on Friday vowed “no cover-up” in the investigation.

“Should the suspected connection between the drug war and the cock fighters’ murders turn out to be true, the administration would … ensure there will be no cover-up,” said Claire Castro, undersecretary of the Presidential Communications Office.

“There would be no let-up in the investigation. That is what the president wants.”