Facebook ignores plea to take down e-sabong: DILG

THE PHILIPPINES has repeatedly asked Meta Platforms, Inc. (Facebook) to take down social media pages which encourage people to participate in illegal on-line cockfighting following President Duterte’s order to stop all “e-sabong.”

The Department of the Interior and Local Government said Meta Platforms, Inc. has ignored its requests to take down all Facebook pages encouraging local e-sabong. 

“We wish to remind Meta Platforms, Inc. that as a business entity operating in the Philippines, they are subject to Philippine laws, rules, and regulations and must comply with them at all times. We have submitted to them the list of Facebook pages, groups, accounts, and sites encouraging people to play illegal on-line sabong but despite official communication and public appeals, Meta Platforms has ignored the request of Philippine authorities,” said Interior Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya. 

He said the Facebook accounts of e-saboing operators are still operational and violates Duterte’s order and of the Cockfighting Law as amended by Presidential Decree 1612. 

“We we have not received a reply from Meta to this date,” Malaya said. “Their continued inaction on the request of this Department, the Philippine National Police, and other government agencies to take-down pages, accounts, and other links encouraging people to patronize illegal e-sabong is tantamount to tolerating illegal activity in their platform. It is not only a violation of Philippine Law, but also a violation of Facebook’s own community standards.” 

“We are, therefore, making this final appeal to Meta to immediately and without further delay take down these pages. We also ask the public to support the ban on all forms of illegal e-sabong on social media so that we can finally put a stop to this social menace that has destroyed the lives of so many of our countrymen,” he added. 

Malaya did not make public the list of e-sabong operators or their Facebook pages. 

Lawmakers previously urged Duterte to put a stop to all e-sabong, but the president ignored this appeal citing the huge amount of revenues the government gets from it. Duterte later on changed his mind and ordered a stop to all e-sabong operations following the abductions of many cockfight aficionados. 

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has also ordered its bank-supervised financial institutions to remove all e-sabong operators from the list of merchants in their respective online applications. (Mindanao Examiner)