Prosecutors to look into motion to charge 39 others in case of missing cockfighters

STATE PROSECUTORS will review a motion filed by the families of victims in the missing cockfighters case, seeking to include 39 other suspects previously excluded from the case resolution, the Justice department said on Tuesday.

Relatives of the victims on Monday filed a motion for partial reconsideration, asking prosecutors to revisit their earlier finding that established probable cause to indict businessman Charlie Tiu Hay Ang, also known as Atong Ang, and co-defendants on multiple counts of kidnapping with homicide and kidnapping with serious illegal detention.

“As for the motion for reconsideration, the panel of prosecutors will look into the merits of the parties’ arguments,” Justice spokesperson Raphael Niccolo L. Martinez told reporters.

Jaja Pilarta, partner of victim John Claude Inonog, said the motion seeks to include 39 additional individuals, including members of the so-called Alpha group who were left out of the initial charges, and have them face the same charges as Mr. Ang.

The motion was filed “so, that those who were not included among the groups we charged — particularly members of the Alpha group — may be included and issued arrest warrants,” Ms. Pilarta told reporters on Monday.

No arrest warrants have been issued by the courts so far, Mr. Martinez noted.

CONSPIRACY
Ms. Pilarta cited the group’s alleged business ties as grounds for holding all “main characters” accountable for the disappearance of Mr. Inonog’s group.

“We believe this was a conspiracy… They belong to the same group and run the same business. They operate a single business, so they know what is happening whenever someone goes missing. They likely also know where our relatives were taken,” she said.

In their earlier case resolution, state prosecutors said the mere mention of certain individuals, without factual narration of their specific involvement, “does not meet the quantum of evidence required to establish a prima facie case.”

Between April 2021 and January 2022, several cockfighting enthusiasts went missing across Luzon, with investigations and whistleblower testimonies suggesting they were targeted over alleged cheating or game-fixing in online cockfighting. — Erika Mae P. Sinaking