15/07/2025
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๐ข๐ฌ๐ก๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ข๐ง๐๐ฌ๐ฌ
By Cymric
In a country where scandals erupt like volcanoes and cool down just as fast, the case of the 34 missing sabungeros somehow remained steady on the wave trend. No media frenzy. No viral hashtags. Just a slow-burn mystery that started in 2021, one man vanishing after another, until someone finally did the math: thirty-four people are gone.
Fast forward to 2025, and we finally get a twist. A whistleblowerโalias โTotoy,โ now known as Julie Patidonganโresurfaces and claims the men were murdered and dumped in Taal Lake. Why? Allegedly for cheating in e-sabong. And because this is the Philippines, he adds that nearly a hundred people may have been killed, with a gambling tycoon and a famous actress somehow in the mix.
Feels like a Netflix special in the making.
But hereโs the catch: most of it remains unconfirmed. No bodiesโat least not clearly identified. Just five recovered sacks: one with suspected charred bones, two with stones, and two others still under wraps. The lake has turned into a real-life crime sceneโor at least, the idea of one.
And while divers struggle with zero visibility underwater, fish vendors above are dealing with a different kind of fog: paranoia. Some buyers are steering clear of tilapia, afraid that the lake may have become a graveyard. When fear meets fish, sales plummet.
Still, the show goes on. Authorities are now considering hiring a Japanese firm to send a submersible into the lake. Because when everything else fails, outsource it.
Meanwhile, families of the missing sabungeros waitโagain. Wait for truth. Wait for action. Wait for anything that might give them closure after years of silence and uncertainty. Itโs taken this long just to reach this point, and itโs hard not to ask: if no celebrity names were dropped, would we even be talking about this today?
๐๐๐๐จ ๐๐จ๐ฃโ๐ฉ ๐๐ช๐จ๐ฉ ๐๐๐ค๐ช๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ก๐๐ ๐, ๐ค๐ง ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐๐๐จ๐, ๐ค๐ง ๐๐ซ๐๐ฃ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ข๐๐จ๐จ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ข๐๐ฃ. ๐๐ฉโ๐จ ๐๐๐ค๐ช๐ฉ ๐ ๐๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐๐๐ ๐จ๐ฎ๐จ๐ฉ๐๐ข ๐ฉ๐๐๐ฉ ๐ค๐ฃ๐ก๐ฎ ๐จ๐ฉ๐๐ง๐จ ๐ฌ๐๐๐ฃ ๐จ๐ค๐ข๐๐ค๐ฃ๐ ๐๐๐ฃ๐๐ก๐ก๐ฎ ๐จ๐๐ง๐๐๐ข๐จ ๐ก๐ค๐ช๐ ๐๐ฃ๐ค๐ช๐๐โ๐ค๐ง ๐ฌ๐๐๐ฃ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐จ๐ฉ๐ค๐ง๐ฎ ๐๐๐๐ค๐ข๐๐จ ๐๐ช๐๐๐ฎ ๐๐ฃ๐ค๐ช๐๐.
And if this story is allowed to fade once more, it wonโt just be a failure to seek justice for the victims; it will be a clear indication that, in the Philippines, justice continues to be driven by publicity rather than principle. Here, crises flare up briefly, only to cool into silence. No closure. No accountability. Just another unresolved tragedy slipping quietly beneath the surface. Unless this cycle is broken, the same will happen again and again.
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Illustration | Fritz Jefferson Sotelo
