A short history of sabong

Cockfighting has been part of Philippine life for at least five centuries, and part of Southeast Asian life for far longer. Here is how sabong came to be what it is today.

Before written records

Chickens were first domesticated from the red junglefowl of Southeast Asia, and fighting birds is among the oldest uses people made of them. Cockfighting was known across the region, from the Indian subcontinent to the islands, long before Europeans arrived.

1521: the first written account

Antonio Pigafetta, the chronicler of Ferdinand Magellan's expedition, described people in Palawan keeping and fighting large roosters, and wagering on them, in 1521. It is the earliest written record of sabong in the islands.

The Spanish era

Under Spanish rule cockfighting stayed popular, and the colonial government chose to regulate and tax it rather than stop it: cockpits needed licences, and fights were held on set days. The cockpit became a fixture of town life, a place for fiestas as much as for fights.

Regulated sabong

The Cockfighting Law of 1974 (Presidential Decree No. 449) set national rules for cockpits: where they may be built, how many a town may have and on which days fights may be held. Today local governments license cockpits within those rules. Unlicensed fights, called tupada, are illegal.

E-sabong

When cockpits closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, fights from licensed arenas were streamed online for remote betting, known as e-sabong. It grew quickly, and so did concerns about it. In 2022 the government suspended online sabong and then banned it by executive order. Cockfighting in licensed cockpits continues.

3D sabong

3dSabong.com takes a different route: a sabong broadcast in which every bird and every fight is computer-generated. It keeps the look, the sound and the structure of a real fight, the matchup, last call, Meron and Wala, takbo and tabla, with no live animals at all, and no betting on the site. Watch it live.