DOJ confirms Thursday dive for missing sabungeros in Taal Lake

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday night confirmed that an initial search dive will proceed as scheduled at 10 a.m. Thursday at Club Balai Isabel in Talisay, Batangas, to locate the bodies of missing cockfighting enthusiasts, or sabungeros, allegedly dumped in Taal Lake.

Department of Justice Assistant Secretary Atty. Mico Clavano said the operation will be jointly conducted by the DOJ, the Philippine National Police–Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG), and the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG).

“The basic plan is, we want to map it out and look at the condition so we can plan how to go about it,” the DOJ said.

Authorities are acting on information provided by Julie Patidongan, also known as “Totoy,” who claimed that the remains of the sabungeros were discarded in a fishpond area in Taal Lake. Patidongan, a confessed middleman in the abductions, further alleged that the number of victims may be as high as 108 — far beyond the 34 individuals officially under investigation.

The search is part of a broader effort to resolve the long-running mystery surrounding the disappearance of the sabungeros, whose cases have remained unsolved since 2021.