EDITORIAL - The case of the missing sabungeros

The story of the 34 missing sabungeros in Luzon didn’t break out all at once. It was a slow burn, starting with one person gone missing here, another kidnapped there, until it was noticed in 2022 that in all 34 people were gone.

The one thing they had in common? They were all cockfighting enthusiasts.

There is now some development in the case of the missing sabungeros, but it’s not the news their families want to hear. According to an informant who has agreed to help in the investigation, they were all killed and dumped in Taal Lake.

Their offense? According to the informant, those taken were suspected of cheating or fraud in e-sabong. He has more to tell; it’s not just 34 people buried there, he said close to 100 were killed. Even more; an A-list female celebrity is involved in the killings.

Any development in this case is welcome even if it’s not what the families want to hear. They have been suffering for years and are desperate for the investigation to make headway in whatever direction.

But then again, we really don’t know if the informant is telling the truth. It may just be a yarn. Considering how many salvage victims are found in different parts of the country every so often, not even one of those 34 bodies has surfaced from the lake yet.

Markets around the lake have reported buyers shying away from fish bought in the lake in the belief that they may have eaten the bodies of the dead, an urban legend that usually surfaces whenever many people go missing in bodies of water.

But whether this is true or not, this case is starting to affect even more people than it should.

Authorities are now mulling hiring a Japanese company to send a submersible to plumb Taal Lake’s depths for the bodies.

This case must be solved as soon as possible to assuage the grief of the families of the missing, or at least assure those living around the lake that the fish there are okay to eat.