Years after the mysterious disappearances of dozens of online cockfighting players, the wife of one of the victims expressed a steadfast determination to pursue justice against the orchestrators of the crime, even as only a handful of families continue the legal battle.

Dianne Loyola, whose husband is among the missing and presumed dead “sabungeros,” spoke outside the Quezon City Regional Trial Court on Friday where the multiple criminal cases were recently transferred from a local court in Santa Cruz, Laguna.

Loyola is one of the five remaining families from the original 19 complainants who have refused to drop their cases.

She was joined by two other families for a series of hearings concerning charges of kidnapping, kidnapping with homicide, and serious illegal detention filed against an unnamed police officer and gambling tycoon Charlie “Atong” Ang.

Ang remains at large, and authorities have not yet located him.

Friday’s proceedings included a hearing on a petition for bail filed by one of the implicated police officers. Loyola urged the court to deny the reques.

“We’ve been fighting for this for a long time, of course we want to get justice for our families,” Loyola said in an interview. “Hopefully it does not get approved because it might lead to the case weakening for us.”

When asked about the other 14 families who backed out of the legal fight amid unverified reports of monetary settlements, Loyola said she no longer maintains contact with them but harbors no resentment.

She stressed that the remaining families will persist with the prosecution.

During the trial, the Department of Justice presented state witness Elakim Patidongan to the witness stand. Patidongan was previously identified in security camera footage using an ATM card belonging to one of the missing cockfighters.

Patidongan has confessed to investigators that superior authorities ordered him to withdraw the cash. He also testified that he personally witnessed the killings of the missing men.

Defense attorneys, including Gabriel Villareal, the legal counsel representing Ang, were also present at Friday’s hearing.