POLICE raided an illegal cockpit operation that was disrupting the novena prayers at the Carreta Cemetery in Cebu City past 2 p.m. yesterday.

More than 100 people who crowded the cockfight fled at the sight of the police team sent by Cebu City Police Office Director Patrocinio Comendador.

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Some of them leaped into a drainage canal 15 feet deep and holed up inside the culverts to hide. Two of them suffered fractures.

Alexander Curaratan of Sitio Cahita, Hipodromo, was injured in the left foot, while Ernesto “Erning” Villamor of Sitio Estacion, Mabolo, fractured his leg. They had to be carried away on stretchers.

Paramedics from the Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation also put a strap around Villamor’s neck to prevent further injuries.

Chief Insp. George Ylanan, of the Investigation and Detective Management Branch (IDMB) who led the team, said they prioritized the rescue operation of the two injured men as it was starting to rain.

Drown

“Basin unya mokalit og baha didto, malumos sila (They might drown),” Ylanan said.

The combined team from the IDMB, Waterfront Police Station and Mobile Patrol Group failed to arrest the other bettors or the cockfight’s organizers.

Two cocks, one of them dead, were recovered after these were left behind inside the cockpit.

Ylanan said the cockpit was located near the cemetery’s wall that serves as boundary between Barangays Carreta and Hipodromo. The cockpit is already part of Hipodromo, he said.

Ylanan said that since the cockpit was hidden by the wall, the police team had a hard time penetrating the area.