Judge upholds 1 cockpit town rule

BY DEXTER A SEE

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Branch 63 of the Regional Trial Court here has declared illegal the permit issued by the municipal government to the controversial Shilan Multi-Purpose Complex for the operation of a cockpit arena.

In a decision, Judge Benigno Galacgac, RTC Branch 63 presiding judge, also ordered town officials to immediately issue the required business permit to another operator, the Lamtang cockpit arena, as it settled a long-standing rift between the two cockpits operating in the town.

The court ruled that the Shilan cockpit could not derive any right from the municipal council resolutions and mayor’s permit granted to it by the local government to operate as a cockpit because this is in blatant contradiction of the law.

Galacgac said that the resolutions passed by the municipal council and the permit issued by the municipal government to Shilan violated a provision of Presidential Decree 449 or the Cockfighting Law, which provides as a one-cockpit-per- municipality rule.

Lamtang has been operating as the only cockpit in the town once the 1960s. The council and the Office of the Mayor, the court said, cannot deny the existence of the Lamtang arena because it has been the only cockpit in the town.

In 2005, the municipal council passed a resolution allowing Shilan as a venue for cockfights, and its operator was granted a business permit to operate as sports complex or recreation in 2004 and 2005.

Later, the LAmtang operator petitioned the court to issue an injunction to stop the operation of Dhilan as a cockpit, saying that this has denied Lamtang its right as a cockpit operator.

Lamtang was not issued a permit this year because the municipal officials obviously favored the Shilan operator in the issue over the two cockpit arenas.

Galacgac declared as null and void the resolutions authorizing Shilan to operate as a venue for cockfights.

Shilan was ordered by the court to stop operating as a cockpit and directed its operator, Tobias Lubos, to pay Lamtang the amount of P100,000 in actual damages, P50,000 in exemplary damages, and attorney’s fees of not less than P50,000.