SCUTTLEBUTT

Grim cockpit tales

A tattletale who works in a fine-dining restaurant exposed a lawmaker as belonging to what the online “sabong” or cockfighting world calls “Group Alpha,” whose members feed off the hard-earned money of bettors.

“The lawmaker, among other members of Group Alpha, is earning huge dividends from online sabong, partnering with known gambling lord ‘A.A.’ With him in the group are governors, mayors, big hotel and resort owners, and colleagues in Congress. The size of the dividends at stake here is hard to imagine,” the informer said.

He added that betting in online sabong has shifted abroad after the crackdown on its operations in the country, which is the reason why Group Alpha members brushed off their worries over online sabong in the country being suspended.

The tell-all derby enthusiast maintained that the so-called purging (read: killing) of erring sentensyadors (cockpit referees) is true.

“Kapag nahuling nandadaya ang mga sentensyador, sinasako talaga at kinakatay (When the arena arbiters are caught cheating, they are immediately disposed of),” he said.

That’s the reason the whereabouts of some missing sabungeros remain unknown, he said.

Last year, the Philippine National Police reassured the missing cockfighting enthusiasts’ families and the nation that the investigation into the ballooning cases of sabungero abductions would continue until the truth is uncovered, which the tattletale doubts.

WTE Folly

Proponents of waste-to-energy (WTE) technology are making a false claim that its use is part of the renewable energy (RE) shift. Garbage, by its very nature, is not a naturally occurring material like sunlight, wind, waves, or other sources of renewable energy.

Garbage comes from human activity and is made up mostly of food waste, plastics, scrap metal, toxic substances and other waste. An incineration ban was lifted for burning garbage directly to generate electricity.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) declared in 2019 that WTE can help address the growing volume of waste. Then the DENR issued an order listing guidelines for operating WTE facilities to treat municipal solid wastes.

Experts were quick to debunk the WTE myth that it is part of RE.

Jorge Emmanuel, professor of environment science and engineering at Silliman University, said any technology that produces emissions is dangerous.

According to Emmanuel, ash produced through WTE would require proper disposal, so more handling facilities would be needed. Also, experts in the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives said toxic ash should not be dumped in regular landfills.

Singapore, which is heavily dependent on WTE and is considered by local proponents as a model for WTE processes, admits that incineration plants are very expensive to build and operate.

“They also take up very large areas of land,” it said.

Burning garbage as a way of helping the country’s energy transition is a huge deception and should not be allowed.