007JL Gaffer: What a Gaffer Does in a Licensed Cockpit

E-sabong (online cockfighting) operations have been suspended nationwide since 2022, under Executive Order No. 9 signed on 28 December 2022 by President Marcos Jr. The traditional cockpit is what is left, and the gaffer is one of the people who make it run. Here is what a gaffer does, what the law says about the role and why it exists, within the wider picture on the sabong law page.

What a gaffer does

A gaffer is the person who arms a fighting cock with its gaff. Presidential Decree No. 449, the Cockfighting Law of 1974, defines the role in Section 4(d) as “a person knowledgeable in the art of arming fighting cocks with gaff or gaffs on either or both legs”. In everyday cockpit speech the same person is the taga tari, and the gaff is the tari. Three things the law says about the role:

1. Section 4(d) defines it as arming fighting cocks with gaff or gaffs on either or both legs.
2. Section 4(e) has the referee watch that the gaffing is done properly.
3. Section 7 makes the gaffer a licensed official.

The work of arming comes before the fight, and the referee oversees it, which is why the two roles sit side by side in the decree.

The role in one table

Why the role exists

The decree treats cockfighting as a regulated tradition, so every person who touches the fight in an official way is named, defined and licensed. Section 7 is direct: only licensed gaffers, referees, bet takers or promoters officiate in cockfighting the decree authorizes, and the licence is renewed every year on the holder’s birthmonth. The city or municipality where the cockfighting is held issues it.

That puts the gaffer inside the same chain as the cockpit. The cockpit itself is licensed under Section 6, and the officials who work in it are licensed under Section 7.

What the licence costs and what a breach costs

The figures are in the text. Section 7 lets cities and municipalities charge a tax of not more than twenty pesos for the licence. Section 8 then names the gaffer among the offenders: a violation of the decree is punished by prision correccional in its maximum period and a fine of two thousand pesos, when the offender is a financer, owner, manager or operator of a cockpit, or the gaffer, referee or bet taker.

The Executive Order that suspended e-sabong also recites that Presidential Decree No. 1602 prescribes stiffer penalties for illegal cockfighting, so read both texts for the current figure.

The Games and Amusements Board accredits cockpit officiating personnel for international derbies, which you can read about on the page for the Games and Amusements Board.

How to check a gaffer’s standing

1. Ask the cockpit’s management to show the official’s licence for the current year.
2. Read Section 7 of PD 449 on lawphil.net for the renewal rule.
3. Ask the city or municipal hall for the local ordinance, since the cockpit and the ordinance set anything the decree leaves open.
4. Read the vocabulary of the called odds on the page about how sabong logro works, because the gaffer’s licence and the odds caller’s licence are separate.