Facebook logo over cockfighting scene. The DILG has asked Meta, Facebook鈥檚 parent company, to take down e-sabong sites after President Rodrigo Duterte decided to stop online cockfighting operations. Image from Jerome Cristobal / 黑料社
MANILA, Philippines 鈥� The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) called on social media giant Facebook on Monday to block illegal e-sabong or online cockfighting pages and accounts.
DILG Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya wrote to Meta, Facebook鈥檚 parent organization, requesting to block pages, groups, and accounts that encouraged illegal e-sabong on all its platforms.
鈥淲e hope that Facebook will immediately suspend or block pages devoted to illegal sabong as fast as they suspend pages that allegedly violate their community standards. I presume that engaging in illegal activities is a violation of FB鈥檚 standards,鈥� he said in a statement.
鈥淲e look forward to fruitful cooperation, coordination, and collaboration on this matter in order to fully implement the ban on illegal e-sabong,鈥� the official added.
The undersecretary submitted the list of seven Facebook pages, groups, and accounts that were identified by the Philippine National Police Anti-Cyber Crime Group as operating illegal e-sabong.
DILG Secretary Eduardo A帽o likewise thanked the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for directing bank-supervised financial institutions to clear e-sabong operators from the list of merchants in their online applications.
According to A帽o, the BSP also ordered bank-supervised financial institutions to inform their clients to transfer their remaining funds to their e-wallets as e-sabong accounts and electronic wallets will be disabled.
READ: 聽DILG to PNP, LGUs: Go after illegal 鈥榚-sabong鈥� operations聽
The clients must transfer the funds within 30 days after the issuance of BSP Memorandum Circular 2022-026, which was released on May 27.
鈥淭his means that even if operators or bettors go underground, they cannot bet through Gcash and Paymaya anymore,鈥� A帽o said.
On May 3, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered an end to e-sabong operations, citing its social cost to Filipinos.