Batangas governor Vilma Santos-Recto appealed on Monday not to link Taal Lake to the case of the so-called missing ‘sabungeros.’
Santos-Recto made this remark after her inaugural address as the governor of the province amid claims by a whistleblower that hundreds of online cockfight enthusiasts who went missing in previous years were buried there.
“With this news, we don’t know if that’s confirmed or not… but the businesses of our fisherfolk are getting affected. And that happened long time ago, three years ago… but we don’t know if it’s true that [the bodies] are dumped there,” she said in mix of Filipino and English.
Recently, fishermen in coastal towns of the lake raised concerns as they observe declining sales after news got out that the sprawling body of water served as a dumping area for the alleged murder victims.
Most importantly, the issue has affected those catching “tawilis,” fish species that are found only in the said lake.
Earlier, former governor Hermilando Mandanas also noted that the provincial government did not receive any reports that there were bodies buried in the lake.
“I did not receive any complaint regarding peace and order…We did not receive any reports from the Philippine National Police (PNP),” he said.
