00:00thank you very much first let me express my appreciation for this committee by uh by
00:06conducting this on the case of uh the missing sabongeros as we all know the disappearance of
00:12that is 34 sabongeros between the period april 2021 and january 2022 has become i'm sorry thank
00:22you has become one of the most high profile unresolved cases in our country linked primarily
00:31to isabong or online cockfighting operations and arenas in luzon this matter this case actually
00:39revealed possible collusion between private operators and law enforcers thereby exposing the
00:48darker side of gambling in our country just uh these are actually just uh factual addressed to
00:57the doj um assec rose and prosecutor reyes let uh how many cases exactly are there
01:09filed with respect to this case of missing sabongeros
01:12uh what i have uh mentioned a while ago mom there are seven cases and um at what level is it a
01:24preliminary investigation level or already with the uh according to uh uh the national prosecution
01:33service uh service uh they have just finished the evaluation of these uh cases and uh and uh the
01:42docket number is about to be uh uh signed and uh there has been a certification uh issued by now
01:52the national prosecution service that this uh uh cases is uh sufficient uh for filing and uh for
02:00for for the conduct of the preliminary investigation so so there has been no preliminary investigation
02:07proper yet yes ma'am it's about to so it's just about we're talking here about the evaluation stage
02:14yes for the national prosecution service before it launches a formal preliminary investigation stage
02:22yes ma'am and how many exactly are the missing sabongeros uh based on record by the police
02:30uh there are 34 missing sabongeros that uh were declared and reportedly missing in eight
02:40incidents in 2021 and in 2022 34 sabongeros eight incidents yes and this could be just the minimum
02:50number yes so you have reason to believe that there could be more of the sabongeros missing yes mr
02:57chair according to our witness there are more than that of the 34 missing sabongeros and uh because 34
03:08is just the official record of the police of the pnp official record of the pnp yes and you can always
03:16you can only rely on the official records of the law enforcers like the pnp yes your honor how many
03:22exactly do we have a picture exactly do we have a picture or do we have a number uh of uh police officers
03:30or law enforcers involved or have been implicated uh i don't have here the official document about the
03:39uh cases filed against those involved uh pnp personnel but uh uh i believe the representatives from the pnp can
03:52answer the exact number uh of pmp personnel involved mr chair can we have the um the answer of the pnp if
04:00if they know the answer i'm just i'm just curious about how many law enforcers are now being
04:07investigated or are supposedly linked to the case of the mrs terrieros
04:14mr chair on our record uh there are 18 uh pnp personnel involved in this case and these are what police
04:23officers i mean what's their rank what's the highest ranked police officer that has been uh who has been
04:30implicated we are the highest ranking uh officer involved is a police colonel uh mr chen okay now of
04:39course we're all interested with respect to the whistleblower
04:44uh doj just a follow up to the question of the honorable pimentel yes sir what's the status of
04:56the application for witness protection program first please confirm whether or not there has been
05:03a formal application for the wpp coverage of this uh whistleblower uh
05:14i believe uh the formal application for the coverage of the witness protection program on
05:21our whistleblower is still in the process and uh because based on the republic act 691 981
05:31which is the witness protection and security benefit app the witness can only apply
05:38under the witness protection program once uh the case has been evaluated by the our prosecutor and uh
05:48we are still uh waiting for the official document about the uh the uh the conduct of the preliminary
05:58investigation we are talking uh excuse me yes according to our police counterpart the witness is very much
06:06secure as of today okay so we're talking here about julie don don totoy but we don't know yes and is now
06:14very much secured under security protection by the police by the pnp by the so it's there's since there's
06:22still no official coverage of that witness under the wpp you cannot gain custody yes the doj specifically
06:32the wpp office yes not even on a provisional status pending the evaluation of uh the application for
06:44for wpp coverage uh i cannot uh answer for now that uh question but uh as far as i know there's no
06:56official coverage for witness protection program for the our witnesses no official coverage yet not
07:03withstanding the very importance and the intricacy of the matter i think i think there's no doubt that
07:09that uh something like this is definitely urgent and we expect of course the oj to act swiftly
07:17on this because we're talking here about the safety security of that witness and the possible
07:24involved involvement of big personalities yes uh mr chair but uh we are uh very much confident that the uh pnp
07:37had uh committed to provide uh security coverage to our witnesses okay so as the doj is concerned and
07:47its uh attached agency nbi the nbi is not at all involved in the investigation of this particular case but
07:57only pnp uh no mr chair they are also supporting our the pnp investigation on these cases they are also
08:06conducted parallel investigation on uh because of course the so the so-called revelations the revelations
08:14of uh patidongan are quite serious and quite alarming and that i would i would assume that both the nbi
08:24and the pnp as investigative agencies are actually serious in validating verifying confirming confirming
08:35those serious allegations and accusations of mr patidongan my my point is of course i don't think you are at
08:46liberty to disclose exactly the findings preliminary or otherwise about the investigation i just wish to
08:56express here to express here that i hope that the current investigation being made by both nbi and pmp
09:05actually cover big fish or influential or big personalities
09:11uh allegedly uh allegedly involved as uh revealed by uh wizard blower patidongan so this body can be assured
09:25by pmp and nbi that you're not just looking at the middle level or the low level alleged perpetrators
09:32but also any other personality that has been who has been linked to this uh case
09:44mr chair on behalf of the philippine national police i give the full commitment of the agency
09:49in pursuing this uh investigation until uh until the end okay just one one manifestation thank you so
09:58much this one manifestation i i i also wish that the doj would speed up its evaluation process with
10:06respect to the wpp coverage of the whistleblower thank you very much mr chair thank you
10:19thank you
10:28so
10:30thank you
10:32thank you
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