JILILUCK Bullstag Explained: Stag, Bullstag and Cock by Age

E-sabong operations have been suspended since 2022: Executive Order No. 9, signed on 28 December 2022 by President Marcos Jr., keeps that suspension in place nationwide and leaves licensed cockpits outside it. A bullstag is a gamecock in the middle age class, and this page sorts the three classes so a cockpit programme reads clearly. The classes are cockpit vocabulary, so the cockfighting law behind licensed cockpits is the frame for everything below.

Bullstag: where it sits between stag and cock

Three age classes cover the birds you hear named. By custom the stag is the youngest, the bullstag is the middle class and the cock is the mature bird. PD 449 does not define any of them, so each cockpit and each derby sets its own cut-offs in its entry rules.

The exact age line is the cockpit’s to set, so the table gives none. Read the entry rules posted at the cockpit, or ask the office, before you assume where a bird falls.

Why age classes exist

Matching only works if the two birds are close in maturity. That is the reason classes come before the pairing, which the page on ulutan meaning places in the order of a fight day.

Class decides three things on a card:

1. Which birds can be paired at all.
2. How a derby groups its entries.
3. What the programme calls the bout.

A bullstag is therefore never paired against a full cock in an ordinary class-matched bout, and a stag is never paired against either by custom.

Bullstag derby

A bullstag derby is a derby whose entries are all bullstags. Instead of mixing classes, the organiser fills the card with one class so every bout is a fair match of age.

PD 449 Section 4(a) says cockfighting means the commonly known game or term “cockfighting derby, pintakasi or tupada”, so a derby is a recognised form of cockfight under the decree. A named example from the vocabulary alone: a “bullstag derby” card lists only bullstag pairs, while a mixed card lists stags, bullstags and cocks in separate bouts. The formats are laid out on the page about the cock derby and its entries.

Where the law stands

Section 5(d) of PD 449 allows cockfighting only in licensed cockpits on Sundays, legal holidays and during local fiestas for not more than three days, with the exceptions the section itself lists. Section 6 lets city and municipal mayors issue the cockpit licence.

Section 1 of Executive Order No. 9 suspends live-streaming of cockfights outside cockpits and online or remote wagering on them. If you are asking whether any of this is lawful, the answer for your situation is on the page asking is sabong legal in the Philippines.