REY K. BAJENTING

Rey Bajenting is a professional roosterman, having been a handler, conditioner in his younger days, he is now a breeder.

He is also a writer. He had been a newspaperman, PR practitioner and Public Affairs Consultant. He had worked as Legislative Staff Chief in Congress, Consultant to the Governor of Cebu, and Executive Assistant at the |Office of the Executive Secretary in Malacanang.

Covid 19, an eye opener

To many gamefowl lovers, the Covid-19 crisis was also an eye-opener. They realized Sabong was not everything. All the bravado about “don’t touch Sabong or there will be revolution,” was just that—plain bravado.

Many had come to realize that Sabong was not that important to their lives. There were many other more important matters to attend to during hard times.

They also had come to appreciate once again the essence of Sabong, the tradition, not the kind of cockfighting which was made instrument of gambling lords and big business.

During the period, they had begun to crave for the Sabong, that is our tradition. They cared less of the big bets, they cared less of bragging rights attached to unnecessarily expensive bloodlines. They all just crave for Sabong and the capability to raise gamefowl in their backyard, and go to cockfights once in a while, which was denied by the circumstances at the time.

Sabungeros, became true sabungeros. They ceased to be businessmen and gamblers. On the other hand, those who in reality were businesmen and gamblers disguised as sabungeros were nowhere to be found.

Many had come to realized that to be a true Sabungero, you didn’t have to big bet. To be a true gamefowl lover and breeder, you didn’t have to buy the most expensive bloodlines because of the name. To be a true Sabungero you didn’t have to spend much.

Because, times of hardship, would remind you, that you should always make every centavo count.