President Rodrigo Duterte said he is ready to suspend the operations of online cockfighting or e-sabong if its ill effects are proven.
“Pero itong e-sabong, pero ngayon I don’t know if it is true and I don’t know if it is really something which is marami raw mga Pilipino ang naubusan, nabenta ‘yung bahay, mga estudyante nagsali na, kasi ayan eh pero kung totoo yan before I go, parahin ko,” Duterte said in a speech in Cebu Province.
Duterte said that he cannot suspend the operations of online gambling because the government needs the revenues to fund its programs.
“Let us study if it is true, it’s getting to be a very serious problem for the Filipinos. Pati raw yung mga asawa magpusta ganoon, tignan natin pag-aralan muna natin then kung totoo ‘yan hintuin ko ‘yan,” he added.
Duterte earlier said that the government earns at least PHP640 million a month from its operations.
“Where will we find that kind of money easily?” he said.
Duterte said the Bureau of Internal Revenue should be in charge of collecting taxes and not Malacañang.
Senators previously proposed to suspend the e-sabong operations over reports of missing cockfighters.
