MAM-MAL-LOT Ka? Wen Wenno Saan

by Jaime Andallo 
(as published 4 years ago in MVP)

I still remember as a young kid, gallera was the place where rich, prominent people in politics, professionals, businessmen and regular people spent their time and money especially during town fiesta, Holy Week and Christmas time.  They came from different towns and sometimes, even from neighboring provinces.

A VERY NOISY PLACE, before and after each game.  Anyone can enter the place and you don’t need a license or much training to know and play the game.  All you need is to pick the right choice, MERON or WALA.  And bring your cash.  Sorry, Visa and Master Card are not accepted.  It is purely a cash system. It’s also a place where you can see throwing of crumpled money in the air.  It’s a good test of your catching skills.

darisayen

DERBY was the main event of the game and you can be a 3-cock or 5-cock champion.  You must have an entry to the game, with pot money as the prize for the champion or winner.  The krysto, the guy who manages the monies of the game, would be shouting ‘meron’ (llamado) or ‘wala’ (dehado) to take the bids.  The sentenciador  will give the decision on the fight.  The last bird who takes three consecutive pokes (bites), dead or alive, will win.

La Gallera Magsingal, in the early days was located in San Vicente, east side of the church.   The noise during the ‘tadi’ is probably one of the reasons why it was then moved to Bussawit Hills.  After a few years in Bussawit, it finally moved to its current location in Parada.  The place is popularly known as CALI, a fast growing site of small beer house establishments.  After the ‘tadi’, this place is a popular pit stop for a lot of men before going home, win or lose.

‘Tadi’ or “pal-lot”, has definitely a strong tradition in our town and in the whole country.  Biro niyo mas marami pa ang sabungan, kaysa simbahan sa Pilipinas.  Did you know that?  Rightly or wrongly, it is one of the most popular forms of entertainment for our male town folks.  It’s not hard to understand why some people might see this as a cruel and brute form of entertainment.  It definitely looks similar to one of the barbaric sports in the olden days.

But to many of our ‘kailians’, this is just like any other sports activity, except that it involves ‘tandang’.  The ‘tandang’ is just like a pet to them.  Although oddly enough, they raise them to eventually go and fight.  I know many manongs, tatangsters and lolos who do like ‘tadi’ or ‘pal-lot’.  Some do it for fun and some do it for the money.  I for one had experienced going there especially if someone I know is bringing his ‘tandang’ to fight.

For the serious ones, they raise and cross-breed their birds in their own farms.  Some old traditions and methods would tell you to look at the leg scales.  If you see those legs with some scales running across, one to three scales in a row, this bird must be a sure winner.  This should be a power hitter and a good fighter.  But as they say, what really matters is the breed.  The training/conditioning is just secondary.

an example of a backyard breeding farm

This article is not in any way written with the purpose of promoting sabong in this site.  It’s just a way to recall the fond memories of LA GALLERA MAGSINGAL and to highlight how entrenched this tradition is in our culture.

Likewise, I’m not a member of any anti-cruelty to animal organization.  But I know that there are organizations who wanted to eliminate sabong in the US for example.  As a result, some or most of the big breeders/cockers in the US either shifted or relocated in the PI or somewhere in Mexico.

As I look back, now that I am living in another country, I can see that we in Magsingal do many things that are considered ‘bizarre’ by other cultures.  But because it’s so ingrained in our psyche, we never see it the same way as the ‘outsiders’ see it.  I guess that applies to many of the bizarre food that we eat as well.  But then again, every culture does bizarre things.  For us, this is something that may take a few more decades or maybe even centuries before sabong is seen by our ‘kababayans’ in a totally different light.