Meron & Wala

Meron & Wala.

FIGHTING, DEATH AND MONEY

This post is a graphic report on the world of cockfighting in Manila, Philippines, and is divided into 8 parts.

1. Roosters in the street

2. The training

3. The coliseum

4. The betting

5. The fight

6. The loser

7. The winner

8. The real winner

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PART ONE

Roosters in the street

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In Manila you can find roosters everywhere, there are children with roosters, roosters with children, roosters tied up, people tied to their roosters, on the railway tracks, on the seashore, in the rubbish, roosters transported on motorbikes, street roosters, roosters being looked after, cages of roosters, caged roosters...

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PART TWO

Training

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It is very normal to see people on the streets fighting their roosters to train them, so that they do not lack that bit of aggressiveness that they should have at the time of the fight.

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PART THREE

Coliseum

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Voices, lots of shouting in the coliseum, people with sad faces (they have just lost a cock) and others with happy faces as their cock has qualified for the next fight. A lot of people, a lot of blood, a lot of feathers and a lot of tension in the atmosphere.

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PART FOUR

The stakes

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Everyone shrieks and I find it hard to understand why. Meron or Wala is what they shout, Meron is one corner and Wala is the name of the other, it doesn't matter which cock is in one or the other, the statistics say you have a 50% chance of winning. The voices are to recognise who is betting the same amount as you in the opposite corner, I only hear noise but they seem to understand each other, although when you peep the understanding is a bit worse.

There is the bookie who is there for bigger bets (a lot) and to avoid bad acceptance when you lose your money because you bet on the losing cock.

Noise for two minutes and ecclesiastical silence when the fight starts.

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PART FIVE

Fighting

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Steel spur (razor) of about 10 centimetres in one of the legs, the fight won't last more than a minute and a half and at least one cock will die. There is a 50% chance of survival and a 100% chance of getting badly wounded if you survive. Dead silence, the referee brings the cocks together when one of them doesn't want to fight (it is usually a cock that has already fought before and doesn't want to go through that ordeal anymore). Suddenly a cock collapses, the opponent's knife has taken his life.

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PART SIX

Looser

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the losing cock dies, is plucked, the leg is removed from the spur and a number is put on it so that the owner can take it away. That night the rooster will be eaten for dinner

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PART SEVEN

The winner

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The winner has not lost the fight but he has not won anything either, in fact he has lost a lot of blood and life. The surgeon is waiting for him with his first aid kit (three black pens, a white ribbon, nail clippers, nolotil pills for cockerels, four gauze pads and cut paper to write with the three black pens) and sews him up in less than 3 minutes because the next cockerel for the next fight is coming soon.

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PART EIGHT

THE REAL WINNER

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1. If your rooster is lucky enough to have killed all of his opponents in the entire round.

260000 pesos = 4500 Euros

2. If your rooster has killed faster than other roosters his opponents

An Econo 500 motorbike plus a 32 inch television.

There are very succulent prizes, SUVs, 15,000 euros, trained roosters, motorbikes, money to furnish your house

This is the last photo