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y growing bigger–GAB Games and Amusements Board Chairman Abraham Khalil Mitra Oliver Samson
Some big-time breeder brand endorsers are into gambling, but the majority who gamble are backyard breeders, he explained. “There are two kinds of cocker. One is a gambler, the other is a breeder,” Mitra said. “But, I think, the number of breeders outnumbers the gamblers.” A class A battle-stag cost today P12,000, while a class A battlecock cost from P15,000 to P20,000, according to Mitra. A trio may cost P45,000, he added. “But for Nene Abello, it’s P60,000; for Gen-Gen Arayata, it’s P150,000; and for Lance dela Torre, it’s about P0.2 million,” he said.
“Their theory is, if you want the best, you really have to pay for it.” An imported trio may cost $1,500, Mitra said. Producing caliber, breeding materials undergoes a number of years of experimentations and infusions of several bloodlines, said Mitra, who is a gamefowl breeder himself.
Media involvement
ACCORDING to Crisostomo, the media helped the industry take leaps and bounds in the past two decades. The sport gained more popularity and breadth, drawing the interest of thousands of new and uninitiated enthusiasts, after a national televi-
sion program dedicated to it went on air in the late 1990s. Tukaan (now the All New Tukaan), aired on IBC 13, which was hosted by the late Emoy Gorgonia from 1998 until his death in 2007, was instrumental in revolutionizing the sport and in setting the industry on its course toward growth, he explained. Media practitioners specializing in cockfighting also grew in number. Magazines, television and radio shows dedicated to cockfighting are generating jobs. Rolando Luzong, for one, who leads All Angles Media Inc., goes print, radio and television. The competition among them to hit more viewers is seen to result in more mature and dynamic cockfighting media, to the benefit of the industry as a whole. The policy on importation of chickens, mostly from the United States, also helped the industry to grow in a rapid pace, Crisostomo said.
More opportunities
THE increasing number of breeders would also create new earning opportunities. Some breeders allow their
farmhands to bring their family with them in the farm. One of them is Biboy Enriquez, a retired hotelier, who houses his farmhands and their respective families at his 20-hectare farm in Tanay, Rizal. Their children go to the nearest schools. Some American breeders even partner with Filipino counterparts to breed and raise gamefowl in the Philippines, since the sport was outlawed in the US. Others wish to breed and raise gamefowl in the country without a local partner. The growth in the number of gamefowl enthusiasts across the country was giving one of the biggest feed and veterinary product manufacturers a volume of demand its current production muscle could not deliver. In 2008 the number of gamefowl, which include the breeding materials, chicks, cockerels, pullets and roosters for pit action nationwide, was estimated to have reached 40 million, Mitra said. The number rose to 44 million today. “We are the center of cockfighting in the world,” Mitra said. “Outside of the Philippines, of course, there is Mexico, Puerto Rico and several others. But cockfighting is
in no other country that big.” According to Mitra, the GAB oversees international derbies. We have the National Cockers Alliance, the Pit Masters Cup and the World Slasher Cup, he said. Promoters pay GAB a fee of P18,500 for every derby, and P300 for every match, Mitra said. Some people, however, attach the term “international” to their derbies, despite the fact that those are local derbies only and charge the audience an international derby admission fee, Mitra said. “An international derby should have a minimum of eight foreign participants,” he explained. “We understand some people in the Visayas, and Mindanao, as well as Luzon, who use the term international to their local derbies.” Starting March 1 this year, derby promoters should secure authorization from the board before holding a derby, Mitra said. As of today, only three leagues secure permission from GAB, which include the World Slasher Cup, NCA and Pit Masters Cup, he added. The major derbies draw from 1,000 to 3,000 audience, according to Mitra.
No worries
DESPITE moves to outlaw the sport in the country, enthusiasts and industry leaders are not worried. “I don’t think that would happen to the Philippines,” he said. “[The gamefowl industry is] a very strong industry. There are cockpits in almost all of the municipalities and cities.” About 75 percent of municipalities across the country have cockpits, he added. A municipality can operate one cockpit for every 150,000 people of its population. If a town has 300,000 people, it can operate two. “In the city of Puerto Princesa, Palawan, there will be two cockpits, since its population has over 300,000 people,” Mitra said. “One [cockpit could be] inside the poblacion [downtown], another outside it.” In Davao two cockpits operate in the poblacion and about five others outside it, since the city has a big population, he added.
“We feel that the chicken has a better chance in the ring with a knife compared to in the kitchen without a knife and a housewife with a big knife,” Mitra said. “That’s how we look at it. So, animal rights, go somewhere else.” Any initiative to outlaw cockfighting in the Philippines would fail, he said.
Industry drivers
The main drivers of the gamefowl industry growth are competition, the Internet and social media, Mitra said. “If the economy is good, the industry is strong,” he said. “Enthusiasts would have more power to purchase gamefowl, and the products and services they need.” The growing competition among players in the industry is seen to result in higher quality of products and services, Mitra added. “Five years from now the population of gamefowl in the country may rise to a total of 50 million and even higher.” The international derbies World Slasher Cup, NCA and Pit Masters Cup may have one or more competitor rivals, Mitra added. Mindanao had already secured permit to promote an international derby. Visayas might take a similar initiative. Recently, GAB conducted trainings, dubbed as Sabong Standardization Seminars, for upgrading the skills and licensing of a gaffer, sentenciador and manggagamot in Palawan, in cooperation with cockpit owners and the two big local associations in the province, Mitra said. The board issued a P1,020 twoyear license to the participants, he noted. GAB saw standardization of gaffing, officiating and post-battle care would upgrade these occupations and is good for the industry as a whole, Mitra added. We have 149 new licensees. The Philippines also hosts the annual International Gamefowl Festival, which was held in January at the SMX Mall of Asia, and its rival World Gamefowl Expo, held in the same month at the World Trade Center.
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www.businessmirror.com.ph | Thursday, February 16, 2017