Ah Trini Travelogue Trinidad & Tobago's most travelled blogger through 99 countries. Create and Re-Engineer your life for travel.
Personal Note : I neither approve nor disapprove of animal bloodsports, as my travelling allows me to respect every culture’s right to their traditions and customs, even if they run counter to my own personal beliefs. This blog post is not a treatise on the relativity of morality to time, politics and prevailing zeitgeist.
- I didn’t support Michael Vick when he was training dogs to tear each other apart … he was tried in the courts of public opinion and criminal justice system … he was found guilty in both counts.
- Bullfighting might be considered barbaric by some, but it legal in Spain and other hispanic countries and a part of the cultural fibre of each of those countries. There is also antitaurina movements in each of these countries.
- Sabong is legal in the Philippines – it is violent and both birds are harmed in the fight – one lethally and the other one usually has some injuries. To frown upon it and apply the sensibilities of modern day urban pet/animal lovers is to un-acknowledge the Filipino’s own cultural segment.
<Insert Trini Tone now> Hence, before allyuh Animal rights people lose allyuh self … this is ” just ah blog post about some fighting cocks … nothing more or less ’bout nothing else” … take that Trinis as you may or may not.
==================================================================================
13th March, 2011
Anyone who knows me, knows that I’m always up for a good wager. However, this is my first time going to a legalized gambling environment outside of a casino, hotel poker game or backwater poker game. Heading to the “Pasay City Cock Pit” was a bit heady at first, then I was filled with some doubts about this little adventure, especially dragging a woman along to the events, knowing that a cockpit was generally a woman free zone, unless the aforementioned woman was serving food or drink.
From the refined confined of the Shangri La Makati to have Hermie drive me off to the Pasay City Cockpit was a bit daunting, but when you have someone who speaks the local language, you’re empowered to do most things, because the “unknown” factor is reduced tremendously. Of course, with security for the van and the series of “awesome” derby signs – one gets a slightly giddy feeling.
Getting in through security with strict instructions about my cameras and phone … NOT ALLOWED, I was a little disheartened – but just because someone told me I couldn’t do something, doesn’t mean that I couldn’t do it – if I found someone to offer “permission” – this is something of a Latin American/South-South East Asian nuance. You have to wander around these parts to understand it.
What got me, was basically how clean and organized the entire thing seemed once you got past the crowd of sweaty men into the seats. For some reason, walking in with a white girl in these parts, will always get you a box seat. Since I know, that with all the guys asking me whether I was a “Fil-AM”, “Balikbayan” or some other inference that I was Filipino … it wouldn’t have been as easy.
As the birds are brought out, in the galleries, the crowd mostly composed of men, waited for the bets to be equalized. Using traditional hand-gestures and calibrated calls, the bet bakers or kristo –which is described as such because of the times when the position of his arms resembles a cross, calls out and equalizes bets in the arena.
I was highly impressed that with calling and hand signals, these guys can take bets from at least two dozen people, remember precisely how much the bet was, to whom it belongs to and other betting minutae – Sabong is an age-old practice.
As the roosters were set face to face in the cockfighting pit, the crowd began to go wilder. In a matter of less than two minutes, the fight is over and the victor is announced. At that point, the crowd’s decibels dips at bearable levels as post-mortem discussions continues. The same level of tension mounts again as another set of cocks was set against each other. 
After making a couple of bets … some successful and one unsuccessful … the kristo who was working for me, got the “permission” I wanted to take some pictures and the video you see above. In fact, he got me down into the matching pit, where “fairness” is applied – birds are matched in terms of body weight and relative health. It is in the matching pit, where another ritual of sabong begins, where the sabongers, match their roosters as they bluff, cajole and banter among each other. 
The roosters are then fitted with a sharp blade or locally referred as tare on their heel by a professional mananare (I peronsally thought that the mananare looked a bit like the cornerman from Rocky – hence the Rocky theme song went off in my head).
The idea is to set and tie the blade at a height and angle wherein the rooster can inflict maximum mayhem with a minimum amount of movement. The height and angle of the blade must conform to the fighting style of the gamecock. 
As for the Sabong Betting System: Here are the main points copied directly from a Traveller on Foot
- First is to choose between two roosters.
- One is llamado, or the crowd favorite who is sought to most likely to win and the dejado or the underdog whose winning chance is deemed slimmer. In short, betting on the llamado means winning less and on dejado means getting more, depending on the odds.
- Understanding the odds require a little math.
- The odds in betting begins at sampu siyam or ten percent, goes on to walo, dyes or twenty percent, then walo, anim or thirty percent and all the way to tres or fifty percent.
- In some cases, the odds could go as high as one hundred percent (doblado) in favor of the llamado.
- All the bets are called through calibrated calls and hand signals.
- However, it takes experience to discern the difference between sampu siyam wagging of the palm to walo diyes wiggling of the thumb.
- Although these rules are not codified or written as laws, they are based on centuries of traditions. To some extent, certain provinces vary in signals and calls.
- Fingers denote figures with their denominations determined by the position.
- If fingers are held upwards, they are in the denominations of ten, when horizontally, they denote hundreds and when downward, they represent thousands.
- Two kinds of bets could be placed during the match
- One in the galleries and the other with the pit manager in the arena.
- In this case, a ten percent plasada or arena fee is deducted from the total bet.
- Tipping rate is ten percent of the total loot. However, no tip is expected if one loses a bet.
Now you’re an expert at Sabong … go to the Philippines and see a match!
[smugmug url=”http://www.rishisankar.com/hack/feed.mg?Type=gallery&Data=16188571_4DMWN&format=rss200″ title=”Pasay%20City%20Cockfights” imagecount=”5″ start=”1″ num=”5″ thumbsize=”Th” link=”smugmug” captions=”false” sort=”false” window=”true” smugmug=”true” size=”L”]
