What does the Games and Amusements Board regulate?

Its mandate page says the Board regulates and supervises professional sports and allied activities, to combat illegal bookie joints and other organized illegal gambling connected with play-for-pay sports and amusement games.

Does the Board license cockpits?

Cockpit licences are issued locally under PD 449, Section 6, and the Local Government Code. The Board's own page lists derby permits and accreditation of officiating personnel.

Is the Board in charge of e-sabong?

EO 9 directs PAGCOR to coordinate on the suspension of e-sabong with local governments and agencies. The Board is not named in that Order.

007JL Games and Amusements Board: Its Official Mandate

In this section
Fact	Value
007JL Cockfighting in the Philippines	Cockfighting in the Philippines is lawful in licensed cockpits on Sundays, legal holidays and local fiestas of up to three days, under PD 449, with local licensing under the Local Government Code.
007JL Gaffer	A gaffer, or taga tari, is the person who arms fighting cocks with a gaff on either or both legs.
007JL Sabong Logro	Logro is the called odds in a cockpit: the ratio the bet taker announces when the two sides are not equal, so the favoured side stakes more to win less.
007JL Ruweda	The ruweda is the ring in a cockpit where a fight is held.
007JL Soltada	A soltada is one fight in a cockpit: the release of two birds into the ring.

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. A second question follows from that: which agency does what around cockfighting? The Games and Amusements Board is one answer, and its own pages say exactly how far its role goes, as the sabong overview of the law explains alongside the law.

What the Games and Amusements Board is

The Board’s mandate page on gab.gov.ph states it plainly: the Games and Amusements Board (GAB) regulates and supervises professional sports and allied activities to combat and prevent the existence and proliferation of illegal bookie joints and other forms of organized illegal gambling connected with all play-for-pay sports and amusement games. Its listed fields:

Boxing and wrestling.
Professional basketball and other professional games.
Betting in horse racing.
Jai-alai.
Cockfighting.
Anti-illegal gambling.

What the Board does around cockfighting

The Board’s functions page carries one item written for cockfighting. It is headed “Supervision of International Cockfight Derbies” and has four parts:

It issues, once requirements are met, permits for the holding of international cockfight derbies.
It accredits cockpit officiating personnel.
It supervises the actual holding of such promotions.
It prescribes policy guidelines for the Bureau of Animal Industry to issue permits for the importation of foreign-bred gamecocks for those derbies.

The Board’s Citizen’s Charter for cockfighting lists two procedures, one for a professional licence and one for a permit to hold an international derby. For the derby permit, it tells the applicant to follow up two to five days after the application is received.

Who does what, side by side

Question	Who answers it	Source
Who licenses a cockpit?	City or municipal mayor; sangguniang bayan or panlungsod	PD 449, Section 6; RA 7160, Sections 447 and 458
Who licenses gaffers, referees, bet takers?	The city or municipality where the cockfight is held	PD 449, Section 7
Who permits an international derby?	The Games and Amusements Board	Board’s functions page
Who coordinates the e-sabong suspension?	PAGCOR, with the DILG and PNP assisting	EO 9, Section 2

Where the Board’s role ends

The Board’s cockfighting role is narrower than the word regulate suggests. The ordinary Sunday cockpit sits under PD 449 and its local ordinance, which is why the Board and the cockpit ring itself share the vocabulary but not the same permit.

Event	Rule set by	Permit from
Ordinary licensed cockfight	PD 449 and local ordinance	The city or municipality
International derby	The Board’s supervision	The Board

Reading the Board’s own text

Open gab.gov.ph and go to Mandate and Functions.
Find the item “Supervision of International Cockfight Derbies”.
Open the Citizen’s Charter for cockfighting for the licence and derby-permit steps.
Compare it with Sections 6 and 7 of PD 449 on lawphil.net.

007JL Games and Amusements Board and Its Cockfighting Role