OCAMPO Robots Final Paper PDF

Blood and Oil: Robot Fights as an Alternative to Sabong
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for

Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and the Law (Robot Law)
OCAMPO, Luis Miguel, F. [Word count: 6,994]

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Blood and Oil
The Blood
Blood sports are an interesting topic in our day and age. When we think of the word blood
sport our imagination might wander back to the days of the Roman coliseums when
gladiators would supposedly fight to the death in front of thousands and for the amusement of
bloodthirsty fans, with their lives hanging on whether or not people want to see someone die
that day. Obviously we don’t have actual gladiator combat today, it would be illegal to have
people duke it out in front of thousands. It might be considered barbaric and inhumane to
have people do that today right?
Blood sport may seem like a thing of the past due to its what some people would consider
barbaric, and undeniably violent nature, but if we really look at what a bloodsport is then we
can see it is still alive and well today. According to Merriam-Webster a bloodsport is a sport
or contest involving bloodshed, the example given being cockfighting or hunting, and it may
also be a ruthless or cutthroat competition.1
So the literal dictionary definition itself already gives us two examples of what may be
considered blood sport, but going off from that definition we can actually think of a few
more. For instance the UFC and arguably boxing matches could be considered blood sports.
A study conducted by the University of Alberta has found that around 59% of UFC fighters
and 49.8% of boxers get injured while competing in their respective sports.2 The injuries can
Blood Sport, available at https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/blood%20sport.

1
2
Bryan Alary, Mixed martial arts bloodier but less dangerous than boxing: Study,
Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine (2015).
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range from broken bones, black eyes, concussions, and of course people getting cut in the
middle of a fight.
Despite the risks involved, athletes still compete in blood sports. Whether you fight in the
UFC or a local boxing ring, you undeniably participate in a blood sport. The biggest thing
that separates the UFC fighter from the gladiator of Ancient Rome might probably be that
chances are the gladiator could have been an athletic slave whose master forced to fight in the
gladiator battles, whereas today nobody is forcing people like Connor McGregor to go into
the ring against his own will.
That’s all well and good if you are talking about people who choose to fight, but what about
fighters without their own agency? While I would not be completely surprised if somewhere
hidden out there people are being made to fight against their own will seeing as human
trafficking is still alive and well, but these fighters that I have in mind are actually still being
made to fight in the open. I’m talking about the roosters used in cockfighting. The
Merriam-Webster definition even spelled out that cockfighting is a bloodsport, one that is
alive and well in our country.
Cockfighting, or sabong as it is locally known, is a sport where two roosters fight each other,
often to the death. How the rounds would usually go is that the two roosters go at each other
and fight until one is dead or out of fight. The referee would determine this by lifting both
roosters from time to time to see if both of them still move or kick, if either one of them stops
resisting the referee then it’s retirement for that rooster.3 Retirement in this business means
3
Aurora Almendral, Just making a living': Cockfighting a way of life in Philippines
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getting sent to the butcher, who’s often conveniently located nearby, who will defeather the
chicken and ready for the winner’s dinner table.4 If this battle to the death weren’t brutal and
violent enough then there are some rings that employ the use of ‘tari’. A tari is a sort of blade
that one would tie to the feet of the rooster so that they would wound and kill their opponent
faster.5 The winning rooster on the other hand becomes just that, a winner, and is rewarded
with a diet deserving of a winner which consists of hard boiled egg with carrots, and a
cocktail of antibiotics and vitamin shots to keep that winner alive and literally kicking.6
Now a person might wonder how we can keep this violent practice alive, I mean if we no
longer subject people to this kind of treatment then surely there must be something wrong
with it right? In our laws we only recognize animal welfare as opposed to actual rights for
animals. In said law, it shall be illegal to torture or maltreat animals, or subject them to
inhumane treatment, and dogfighting and horsefighting has been criminalized.7 The killing of
animals that aren’t for consumption has also been outlawed, and even the killing of those
animals must be done humanely.8 Most notably however the law is silent on the sport of
sabong, and arguably when the killing is finally done at the end of the match it is done
humanely or to put the animal out of its misery so it would not fall under the penalized acts.
In fact if anything the sport of cockfighting has been recognized by the government and for a
time we had a Philippine Gamefowl Commission to regulate the sport. That doesn’t mean we
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/travel/just-making-living-cockfighting-way-life-philippines-flna6C1094577
6
4
Sabong: Cockfighting In The Philippines Thrills’ available at
https://www.top-destination-choice-the-philippines.com/sabong.html.
5
Id.
6
Aurora Almendral, Just making a living': Cockfighting a way of life in Philippines
6
7
AN ACT TO PROMOTE ANIMAL WELFARE IN THE PHILIPPINES, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS "THE
ANIMAL WELFARE ACT OF 1998"[The Animal Welfare Act], Republic Act No. 8485, section 6 (1998).
8
Id.
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can’t completely do away with it right? Well unfortunately that might be a tough pill to
swallow for the people.
Cockfighting, has been big in our islands since at least 1521 when Magellan first arrived.9 In
Cabuyao, Laguna, these fights happen everyday except Monday, which gives us an idea of
just how prominent these fights are.10 In Metro-Manila the matches are held everyday, it’s
really more of a matter of finding which neighborhood or barangay is hosting a cockfight that
day.11 It’s become something of a national past time and perhaps even ingrained in our
culture. It’s become a sort of a local event for everything from fiestas to funerals as the bets
and winnings can often help defray the expenses of these extravagant events.12 It has fans
from the rich, who obsessively try to breed the deadliest killer rooster, to both the rural and
urban poor who while aren’t often armed with the latest in science and genetics still try their
hand with their own homebrewed breeds of killer roosters.13 As something as a badge or mark
of being ingrained in the Filipino culture, sabong even has its own set of superstitions such as
how you should not sweep the floor of your house on fight day, shaving is forbidden or else
your roosters tari will break in the middle of a fight, to even the most absurd belief that
having sex the night before will cause you to lose.14
9
Aurora Almendral, ‘Just making a living': Cockfighting a way of life in Philippines’
6
10
Id.
11
‘Sabong: Cockfighting In The Philippines Thrills’ available at
12
Godofredo Stuart, ‘Sabong’ available at h ttp://www.stuartxchange.org/Sabong.
13
Id.
14
Id.
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Cockfighting itself is a serious business in the Philippines. Serious breeders breed up to
around 3,000 birds at a time,15 with the most prized roosters selling for up to $5,000 in at least
one case.16 Bets from the richest owners run up to the hundreds of thousands, with the biggest
tournaments having millions in total worth of bets.17 The cost of entry for these big
tournaments can run up to about Php 155,000, with about 300 people in attendance.18 Of
course the biggest roosters are fed a cocktail of all the drugs and vitamins they need to grow
big and strong.19 While obviously not every cockfighting enthusiast can afford to participate
in the biggest competitions, it still gives us an idea that people take cockfighting seriously
and while you might dismiss it as a hobby or a novelty, it has become a million Peso industry
in our country. That alone probably gives most legislators some pause, and is probably why
despite it being so violent it’s hard to just crackdown on sabong completely and dispose of it
as a contest.
There is no denying that while sabong is inherently violent and brutal, it has worked its way
into the lives of many Filipinos all over the islands. To the outside observer such as myself it
is absurd that we can continue to have such a violent practice and have it celebrated by the
community in our day and age, but here we are. It might be overly harsh to just take away the
spectacle, but undeniably our legislators could do it. What if instead of just taking and
leaving nothing behind, we introduce something new? An alternative ‘bloodsport’ that
15
Phillip Day, ‘Cockfighting thrives in full view in Philippines’ available at
https://asia.nikkei.com/Life-Arts/Life/Cockfighting-thrives-in-full-view-in-Philippines2.
16
Entre Pinoys, ‘How to Start Gamefowl Breeding’ available at
https://ep.franphil.com/how-to-start-gamefowl-breeding/.
17
Phillip Day, ‘Cockfighting thrives in full view in Philippines’ available at
https://asia.nikkei.com/Life-Arts/Life/Cockfighting-thrives-in-full-view-in-Philippines2.
18
Id.
19
‘Sabong: Cockfighting In The Philippines Thrills’ available at
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doesn’t actually involve the shedding of blood or the killing of a living creature. What if we
replaced the roosters with robots?
The Oil
As ridiculous as battling robots sound, the idea isn’t actually new. Since 1998 over in the
USA they have been showing the program “Robot Wars”.20 While the show has been
scrapped and reborn a number of times, there is a minority clamouring for it to return.21
Today however the show lives on through its spiritual successor, “Battlebots”.22 The idea in
both shows are the same, people would bring in their specially designed robots, operate it
through remote control, and try to dismantle or put the other robots out of fighting
commission.23 They’d fight in this big metal arena with traps like spikes or flames, and the
matches would go on until one robot could not fight anymore.24
Fight Club Rules
Of course every respectable contest needs it rules and Battlebots is no exception. All robots
are meant to be controlled via radio remote control and naturally the frequencies used are
regulated so as not to interfere with any other equipment.25 There are safety regulations in
place such as disclosing how much your robot weighs, and what exactly it can do which will
go into what weapons each robot is armed with and what components go into it to make it
20
Stuart Heritage, ‘Robot Wars has been scrapped – again. Time for it to rearm’ available at
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/mar/19/robot-wars-has-been-scrapped-again-time-for-it-to-rea
rm.
21
Id.
22
Design 1st, ‘Get ready for Battlebots 2019’ available at
https://www.design1st.com/get-ready-for-battlebots-2019/.
23
Id.
24
Id.
25
Battlebots. “Tournament Rules”, at Rule 4.0 available at
https://battlebots.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/BattleBots-Tournament-Rules.Rev.2020.0.pdf.
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run.26 If a robot is damaged then there are Safety inspectors who will make a determination if
it is still safe for the robot to go back into the arena.27 We are talking about batteries, gasoline,
and possibly even fire, so it is of the utmost importance that every robot doesn’t pose an
actual threat to people. They may be fighting in an arena but if anything goes wrong liability
might land on the organizers’ laps.
Each match lasts about 3 minutes and can end in a variety of ways such as by points,
knockout.28 Strangely submission is not allowed either, so each bout is to the ‘death’ or
whatever its equivalent is for a fighting robot. A knockout in this case occurs when a robot is
left incapacitated. Incapacitation can be shown by counting down in case the referee believes
the robot can no longer fight, or has become unresponsive due to the opponent’s actions or
via technical knockout in case it is not the opponent who caused the incapacitation.29 It also
happens from time to time that the robots actually get stuck in the arena, and in such case the
referee will try to unstick the robots if possible, all count down and go to the Judge’s decision
or be rescheduled depending on how much time has passed in the match.30 Matches are
scored based on how much damage, aggression, and control is exhibited in a match, with
damage being worth 5 points and the other two criteria worth up to 3 points each.31
Who Gets to Fight
26
27
28
29
Battlebots. “Tournament Rules”, at Rule 6.1.2 available at
30
31
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As it is possible to build literally any robot given enough time and creativity, the organizers
also have some rules as to what kind of robot you can build. While I call them rules they are
more of guidelines to be followed. A reading of the design rules show that you can build
nearly any kind of robot, with a few exceptions.
To start things off, there are no rules as to how the robot moves around, it can be a crawling
robot with wheels, a walker type, a hopping robot, and even a flying robot.32 Every robot
must be under your control, specifically via remote control,33 so as of yet fully autonomous
robots are not only improbable but disallowed in the BattleBot arena. Every robot must be
armed with some sort of weapon, and there are certain size limits depending on what kind of
robot you’ll be competing with.34 Naturally you can’t use materials that are radioactive or
toxic, and you also can’t use organic materials like wood, nor can you use materials that
easily catch fire since the arena has that hazard built in.35
Going into the weapons the rules provide that you can have nearly any kind of weapon, even
projectiles. Projectiles however cannot be explosive or cause an arena fouling problem, and
notably the rules explicitly allow gas powered guns.36 In addition to that your weapon cannot
use materials that will dirty the arena, such as glue or ball bearings, nor can it shoot out gases
or liquified gases like nitrogen. EMP devices are also prohibited because they would ruin the
32
Battlebots. “Design Rules”, at Section 1.a available at
https://battlebots.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/BattleBots-Design-Rules-Rev.2020.0.pdf
33
Battlebots. “Design Rules”, at Section 5 available at
34
35
36
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electronics of the other robot and interfere with the control directly, rather than by destroying
the actual physical robot itself. To an extent flames are allowed but only for showmanship
purposes, mostly because any extensive use of flames could severely damage the arena which
the rules highlight is a serious concern and grounds for disqualification.37
Aside from those rules however there isn’t really much limit as to what you can build into
your robot. The rules also highlight that you could use pneumatics and internal combustion
engines, but warn a potential robot builder that you should not play with those forces if you
do not have a good understanding of them.
Regulating Robots
So those are the rules that the BattleBots organizers have set for their competitions.
Admittedly they aren’t perfect, and I can see some issues with some regulations or lack
thereof. So how would we go about regulating robot fights if ever? As a sort of framework
we can actually use the old regulations when it comes to cockfighting that we used to have.
We can also review the old Gamefowl Commission law and their duties before the
commission was absorbed by the Games and Amusement Board. Of course these laws will
look into how the sport itself is regulated, and not everything will be a one to one fit with
robot blood sports especially when it comes to regulating the robots themselves.
To start things off we can look at the Cockfighting Law of 1974 passed by former President
Marcos with PD No. 449. Looking at the people involved in the definition of terms we can
see that there is a bet taker, gaffer or taga tari, referees, and bettors.
37
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The bet taker is defined under said law as:
A person who calls and takes care of bets from owners of both gamecocks and those of
other bettors before he orders commencement of the cockfight and thereafter distributes
won bets to the winners after deducting a certain commission.38
While that’s a straightforward definition, the more interesting implication is that betting is a
real part of sabong and recognized by law. The question we would ask of course is would we
allow that for robot fights? While there are pros and cons to allowing gambling I think there
might be some differences when it comes to betting on robots as opposed to roosters.
One key difference is that you can’t tell a rooster to throw a match, but the robots are
controlled by operators. It’s much harder to fix a match when your competitor is a literal
animal, as opposed to a human operator. There are rules of course such as not being able to
‘tap-out’39 but then an operator could just find another way to lose. For instance under rule
7.6.2 of the BattleBots Tournament rules a competitor can lose if they intentionally avoid
engagements and this would be ruled as a knockout. An operator could also pretend to fight
back, but really just control their robot in such a way that they will lose. Since there is more
active human participation in BattleBots should we prohibit betting? I don’t think that’s an
entirely viable solution either.
One of the key draws of sabong is that you can bet on the roosters. Earlier I mentioned that
some of the biggest individual bets would run up to the hundreds of thousands, and the biggest
pots have reached millions. If robot blood sports is going to serve as a real replacement to
38
Cockfighting Law of 1974 [Cockfighting Law], Presidential Decree No. 449, section 4(c) (1974)
39
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sabong then I don’t think we can remove betting entirely. It would cut out one of the key
elements of sabong and people would just clamour for its return.
So what can we do about betting? I say we keep it but if a match is decided in a certain way
then maybe the bets should be returned, or don’t pay out as much. For instance if a match is
decided due to intentional engagement avoidance then maybe the bets will only pay half as
much as what was put in, or you only get your bet back. That way at least the competitors will
be forced to fight it out. We could also look at the records of the competitors themselves. If
for example they go on losing streaks where they really just get clobbered and don’t put up
much of a fight then maybe suspend betting for that competitor’s matches, or suspend that
competitor altogether. This can be measured by the scoring criteria the judges use in order to
score the matches, so based on the damage, aggression, and control the competitors exhibit
then we can see if they are actually trying to win or not. Judges could, and probably should,
keep score even if a match is decided by knock-out just to determine whether or not a player
is actually fighting back, because it could be that a competitor keeps getting knocked out but
is legitimately trying to win anyway. We could also forbid competitors from betting, or make
it so that they can only bet on themselves, but obviously this isn’t a solution that would work
all the time. There could be a scenario where a competitor’s friend makes a big bet on the
competitor to lose, and they could just split the pot from the winning bet, but it is still
something to consider.
These are just a few ways to try to maintain a fair environment when it comes to betting. At
the very least the competitors themselves will be discouraged from fixing their own matches.
Of course there are other factors like the referees, and even in big sporting events like the
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NBA referees have been known to influence the outcomes of games.40 The fact is though
when we add more human elements to a competition we really just open it up more to
cheating and greed, so the solution there would be to have more impartial referees, maybe a
stricter criteria for selecting them.
Another player in the cockfighting industry would be the gaffer or taga tari. 41 As earlier stated
in the paper a tari i s the blade tied to a rooster’s foot that it would use to wound the other
rooster. Of course when talking about battling robots we don’t have to be limited to just a
blade, since you can put practically any weapon on a robot that obviously would not be
possible on a chicken.
The closest thing that would take the place of a taga tari i n a BattleBots match would be the
safety inspector. The safety inspector of course doesn’t build your robot for you, nor do they
attach any of your weapons, but they should be knowledgeable as to whether or not your robot
passes the regulations. They should know what each robot is capable of, and each competitor
should disclose the capabilities of their robot to the safety inspector. That way the safety
inspector knows what each robot is capable of and how to handle each situation.
With that in mind though we have to see that it is obvious that a safety inspector will have
very different qualifications from a taga tari. All a taga tari h as to be able to do is handle
sharp objects around angry roosters, which while dangerous poses different dangers from
handling robots and weapons. A safety inspector would have to know how to handle
40
Scott Eden, ‘How former ref Tim Donaghy conspired to fix NBA games’ available at
https://tv5.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/25980368/how-former-ref-tim-donaghy-conspired-fix-nba-games
41
Cockfighting Law, at section 4(d).
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mechanics, possibly have to deal with flammable objects, possibly gas powered weapons,
pneumatics, etc. I think it would be unrealistic to have every LGU have an engineering
graduate on hand every time they have a robot fight, but some if not most of the parts
involved are really just remote controlled simple machines. We are not talking about highly
sophisticated machines or AI here, the robots in BattleBots are really just glorified drones or
RC cars with weapons built on them.
While most LGUs probably don’t have a certified engineer, I think it is more realistic that
most LGUs would have a mechanic of some sort who knows how to fix jeepneys, small
appliances, and some simple electronic gadgets. The safety inspector doesn’t have to be a
master at robotics, just someone who knows how to handle machines. If we think about it
handling cars can be dangerous too if you don’t know how to handle them, at least a mechanic
has some experience handling machinery. If possible a possible law would have a sort of
certification that would require a person to have a certain amount of experience dealing with
cars, and maybe include a short primer on how to handle these robots and the common
weaponry. That way every safety inspector has an idea of what to expect and how to handle
each problem.
Which goes into another very important factor that must be regulated, what weapons will we
allow on our fighting robots? The BattleBots rules are largely permissive about what kind of
weapons it allows for their robots. So long as they don’t damage the arena or interfere with
the electronics the general idea is that anything goes. I think this is a dangerous precedent and
if we were to introduce fighting robots then we would have to regulate what weapons they
use, and possibly the range of control.
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Looking first at the robots themselves, I think we should only stick to land based robots, no
flying drones. First, this would make it easier for the safety inspector to handle and lessen the
additional training if any a safety inspector would have to take. Ground based robots would
probably have wheels or mechanized legs, the first of which an experienced mechanic would
likely have encountered and the second involves simple moving parts. No need to learn about
how flying drones move around or how they work, so no additional training needed there.
Second, this makes it easier to control the range at which these robots could operate. One of
the issues concerning drones now is that anyone who mounts a camera on a drone is a serious
privacy risk.42 If you mount a camera on your fighting robot then suddenly it becomes easier
to spy on your neighbors. While I believe there should be a way to control this privacy risk
and make it more manageable, I don’t think we should overcomplicate a fighting robot law
with an issue deserving of its own law. The simplest way to handle it is to first just disallow it
in a robot fight, maybe if our laws and regulations become more sophisticated and nuanced
then it could be allowed in the future but for now no flying robot fighters.
Then goes the weapons themselves. One main issue I think for fighting robots is when does a
mere fighting robot transition into a killer robot? Immediately after 9/11 the US had been
experimenting with killer drones, and the UK has utilised Reaper drones around 2,423 times
and reported 398 strikes with over 4,000 reported kills.43 Ethical issues aside, it’s clear that
42
Stephen Rice, Eyes In the Sky: The Public Has Privacy Concerns About Drones, available at
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stephenrice1/2019/02/04/eyes-in-the-sky-the-public-has-privacy-concerns-about-d
rones/#58050c106984
43
Dan Sabbagh, Killer Drones: how many are there and who do they target?, available at
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/nov/18/killer-drones-how-many-uav-predator-reaper
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these drones are weapons of war and I don’t think we should give them to the people. This is
also another point in favor of only land based robots for our robot bouts.
One way we could regulate this is by simply prohibiting projectile weapons of any kind on the
robots. The clear danger in mounting projectiles on robots is putting guns on them, or any
kind of projectile for that matter. No pellet guns or any projectiles on robots. In 2018, the
DOH reported that the boga, an improvised cannon made out of PVC pipes that is brought out
in New Year celebrations, was the leading cause of firework related injuries in the
Philippines.44 I feel like if we simply ban guns or gun like weapons on robots people will
simply get creative with what other projectile weapon they can mount on the robots, so it is
probably safer to just prohibit altogether. With that in mind I think it is also wise to forbid fire
based weaponry on the robots. Even the BattleBots design rules only allow fire as a
showmanship part on a robot and not necessarily as a full on weapon. While that might be
viable in the USA, I can only imagine that in the more tightly packed LGUs this could be a
disaster waiting to happen, not to mention it might give arsonists another avenue with which
to commit that crime.
Should we allow blades and spinning weapons on robots? I think with the regulation on flying
robots it would not be that big a problem. As it is now cockfighting roosters do have blades
attached to their feet and we don’t see people training assassin roosters to commit murder.
True a robot is actually controlled by a human operator, but these robots are ground based
anyway. A fighting robot would not be able to fly into a person’s window to kill their target,
they would have to enter the front door. A fighting robot might be able to break into a house,
44
Sheilah Crisostomo, DOH: Boga Leading Cause of Firecracker Related Injuries, available at
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2018/12/31/1881442/doh-boga-leading-cause-firecracker-injuries
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but maybe we could limit the strength of a robot, or at least the range at which it operates.
Since they would only be used for fighting which would be in an arena and at close range, a
fighting robot could be regulated to only receive the input at maybe around 10-15 meters. This
would make it harder to employ a fighting robot as a killer robot, almost impractical even, so
this might be a good start.
Finally we can look at the referee of a fighting robot match and compare it with a referee in
the cockfighting law. Under said law the referee is defined as:
Referee (Sentenciador) — A person who watches and oversees the proper gaffing of
fighting cocks, determines the physical condition of fighting cocks while cockfighting is
in progress, the injuries sustained by the cocks and their capability to continue fighting
and decides and make known his decision by work or gestures and result of the cockfight
by announcing the winner or declaring a tie or no contest game.45
Now a referee in a cockfighting match only has to determine if the rooster still has fight in it,
which as earlier mentioned only involves lifting both roosters and see if either one has stopped
moving. This is slightly more complicated with robots because robots don’t die, they only
become incapacitated. It’s harder to tell if a robot is incapacitated since the word is a bit more
subjective and while a robot might not be able to move from point A to point B, it might still
have some fight in it from a different point of view.
My suggestion here would be to roll the safety inspector and referee into one person. A safety
inspector would have to know how the robots work and operate to see if they are in fighting
condition and fit to compete in the robot arena. Since a safety inspector already knows the
workings of each robot that he allows to participate, he should also know when a robot is
unable to operate properly or when it is behaving not as intended anymore. It would make it
45
Cockfighting Law, at section 4(e).
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simpler to have these two functions performed by the same person because that person should
be equipped with knowledge to determine whether or not a robot is incapacitated. It doesn’t
have to be that Safety Inspector A is the referee for match X, it could be that Safety Inspector
A is the one who OKs the robots and then hands his report and information to Safety Inspector
B, who will then referee. The key here is that both Safety Inspector A and B have the same
technical knowhow to handle electronic gadgets and machinery, and they would both know or
be able to tell when something is not working right. A short report on each robot should
inform Inspector B on what to expect and how to handle it.
We could also make it that the referee is a respected person in the community to ensure
fairness. Maybe a Barangay Captain, or someone in good standing with the community could
oversee the match with the Safety Inspector close at hand to advise the referee in case a match
is about to close or a knockout is imminent. Instead of just declaring a knockout, the referee
could count down the suspect robot and ask the operator to perform a task that the robot
should normally be able to do, as is the case in the BattleBots rules.46 After giving the operator
a short amount of time to perform whatever simple task it can be easy to see or determine
whether or not the robot is knocked out based on the success or failure to do so.
Now one role that BattleBots has that sabong doesn’t is the role of judge. BattleBots matches
can end in a decision, but sabong always ends in the death of one rooster. As there is no
parallel then legislators are free to determine who can be a judge.
46
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My proposal is that for the smaller local fighting robot circuits we can have members of the
community judge, to increase participation, or have local officers like Barangay officials
judge the match based on the criteria of damage, aggression, and control as provided for in the
BattleBots rules. Now these criteria are subjective and we would basically be putting the
outcomes of matches in the hands of these untrained people, but as it is now there aren’t really
any fighting robot experts in the country anyway. This is not like a boxing match where you
could probably recruit judges from a pool of experienced boxers, coaches, fans, etc. Fighting
robot judges just doesn’t really have a parallel with cockfighting due to the nature of the
contest. That doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing in a local league, since there could be
three judges selected from the community or officials and each judge’s score would be
weighed equally. It could also be that we could get one person from the community, one local
official, and one inspector or mechanic to judge each local match. That way each judge can
observe the match and give a score based on their own perspective on how they saw the
match, and give a bit of credibility while increasing the participation of the people.
Of course for the bigger leagues we could legislate by having actual fighting robot judges to
score the matches. It might be impractical for a LGU to have a certified judge on hand all the
time, but for a big tournament it would be more plausible to have a pool of certified judges to
score the biggest bouts.
There doesn’t seem to actually be a program to enable people to be certified for being a judge
in professional sports like boxing or UFC. In MMA the process usually starts by judging
amateur bouts, and usually the judge is someone who has some background in MMA to begin
with.47 These judges would slowly work the amateur circuit and eventually get recognized for
47
Vern Hee, What it takes to become an MMA judge, available at
https://pvtimes.com/sports/what-it-takes-to-become-an-mma-judge/
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their good judging work and make it into the professional circuit like UFC. The same is true
with boxing where you start at the bottom circuits until you make it to the bigger fight cards.48
In fact just because you can judge one big bout doesn’t mean you are fit to judge another, as
the judges from the Rio Olympics have actually been barred from judging the Tokyo
Olympics in 2020 due to allegations that their judging has been subpar or even biased.49
Naturally if we were to start a robot fighting league in the Philippines we won’t have a pool of
experienced fighters, fans, or inspectors, since we would be starting from scratch. To start off
we could have engineers judge the matches at the national level, since it would be more
plausible to have actual experts on the national stage rather than local mechanics. Depending
on how officiating goes the engineers could stay on as permanent judges, and maybe later on
the amateur judges from the local scenes could rise and judge the bigger matches until they
become professional judges themselves.
Included in the Cockfighting Law was the power of the LGUs to pass ordinances for building
cockpits or cockfighting arenas.50 Now the Cockfighting Law left it up mostly to the LGUs
themselves, with some restrictions that the pits could not be built near places like hospitals,
schools, or commercial and residential areas, with no express regulation on how big each
arena would be or how it would be built. While not much thought has to go into building a
cockfighting pit seeing as it only has to be big enough for two roosters to battle it out, it might
pay to put a little more thought into a robot fighting pit.
48
Ken Miller, BECOMING A BOXING JUDGE IS A LONG, THANKLESS PATH, available at
https://lasvegasweekly.com/as-we-see-it/2013/sep/25/becoming-boxing-judge-long-thankless-path/
49
Rio Olympics boxing judges barred from Tokyo 2020, available at
https://www.rte.ie/sport/boxing/2019/1120/1094156-rio-olympics-boxing-judges-barred-from-tokyo-2020/
50
Cockfighting Law, at section 5.
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The BattleBots arena for instance includes hazards and is held in a bigger steel cage as
mentioned earlier. The question is do we also include such hazards for every arena? I think it
would be beneficial to limit what hazards they can place in the local barangay’s arena. For
instance I think for the local robot arena there should be no fire hazards, as that would be
harder to control and is a recipe for disaster. In fact, aside from a few destructible hazards, like
maybe small hastily made cinder block structures, there shouldn’t be any hazards in the arena.
The less moving parts a safety inspector or referee has to account for the better, especially
because they might have to enter the arena later on to inspect the robots and whether they can
still keep fighting. It would minimize the danger to these officials and lessen the maintenance
costs for the arena.
Now on the other hand bigger arenas for the national stage, or even for bigger cities and
provinces, could be allowed to have more exciting hazards, provided that the building and
structure itself passes some safety tests. For instance these bigger arenas should be fireproof at
least especially if we will consider adding in fire hazards for the arena. They could have more
moving parts like blades or saws in the arena that the operators would have to take into
consideration when controlling their robots. A bigger arena can have more sophisticated
technology put into it that can be easily controlled. In fact BattleBots employs the use of
CrewBots to do the inspection for the robots and handle the timeout functions like escorting
an operator to the robot or inspecting a stuck robot.51 While the CrewBots seem to actually be
people in the rules, a bigger LGU or even a national competition could actually use drones to
perform these tasks, which minimizes the risk to the human officials. A bigger LGU or the
51
Battlebots. “Tournament Rules”, at Rule 6.6. available at
21
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nation would more feasibly have the budget to not only implement more exciting hazards, but
also implement them safely.
Admittedly all this would be treading new ground for legislation, but it doesn’t all have to be
up to the legislators, they could assign a group of experts to determine the finer intricacies of
the rules.
The Philippine Gamebot Commission
In 1981 former President Marcos established the Philippine Gamefowl Commission with PD
1802. The Philippine Gamefowl Commission was envisioned to be a sort of national authority
that would handle the establishment of sabong rings, and the operations of said rings. As
fighting robots are admittedly unfamiliar ground for most if not all our legislators then it
might be best to leave it up to a commission like the Philippine Gamefowl Commission to
handle the finer details. This would work like a Philippine Fighting Robot Commission and
would fulfill the same functions that the Gamefowl Commission used to handle before it was
decommissioned.
The first of these functions would be to promulgate and enforce rules and regulations of
holding derbies and fights in the Philippines.52 A Fighting Robot Commission could better
handle the rule making for robot fights and better adapt to an evolving competition. Maybe
they will see that we could allow more weapons on robots, maybe a different criteria more fit
for the Philippine fighting robot scene, that would be up to these chosen experts to decide.
52
Creating the Philippine Gamefowl Commission [Philippine Gamefowl Commission], P.D. No. 1802, at sec.
2(a) (1981).
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Ocampo, Luis Miguel
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Another function the Gamefowl Commission performed was issuing licenses for holding
international derbies.53 While I am unsure whether we could have international derbies, the
idea of issuing licenses to host robot fights seems like a good idea. Maybe it would be better
to privatize the handling of robot fights to an extent, and a Commission would set its own
standards as to who could handle or host these fights. They could inspect equipment to see
who can actually handle fighting robots safely, and maybe even set guidelines for who may be
able to compete. This also works in tandem with another of their functions which was to
promulgate rules on the operations and conduct of cockfighting, only now it would be for
robot fighting.54
While the Fighting Robot Commission could be empowered to do any number of things, we
might have to take into account who could be part of such a commission. The Gamefowl
Commission had members of the government like the Director of Animal Industry, the
Chairman of the Games and Amusement Board, a representative from the Department of
Tourism, to name a few, including members of the private sector,55 and I think we could
follow that with a few adjustments. For instance rather than the Director of Animal Industry
we could have the Secretary of Science and Technology sit on the commission. We could also
include engineers from the private sector to sit on the board to lend their expertise, maybe one
that specializes in drones and mechanics.
Robots and drones may be a complex topic for our legislators to have to take everything into
account, so the formation of a Commission could benefit us greatly in case we ever consider
replacing sabong with fighting robots.
53
Philippine Gamefowl Commission, at sec. 2(b).
54
Philippine Gamefowl Commission, at sec. 2(d).
55
Philippine Gamefowl Commission, at sec. 1.
23
Ocampo, Luis Miguel
Blood and Oil
Blood or Oil? Is it Worth it?
So is it worth considering replacing or phasing out sabong in favor of robots? I believe that
it’s something we could consider. Fighting robots after all doesn’t actually hurt anyone, unlike
with sabong where we have roosters fight it out to the death for the enjoyment of people,
primitive robots don’t feel anything. Whatever wild or violence goes on in that ring isn’t
actually being done to a living creature, they’d essentially just be destroying toys so that
would be a plus as opposed to killing roosters for enjoyment.
It could also be just as exciting as sabong. Admittedly I do not see the appeal of sabong to
begin with, but if the appeal is in the carnage and violence then robot fighting could be just as
good. Where in sabong you could only see two roosters fight, sometimes armed with a tari,
sometimes without, in a robot fight you could see robots armed with circular saws, slashing
blades, mallets, flippers, etc. Every robot fight could be different because every robot is
different.
Not to mention that the competitors are actually the human operators, we could have robot
fighting personalities as opposed to sabong where there isn’t much involvement of the people
who breed the roosters for competition. All the breeders and rooster owners really do is
release their rooster to fight and that’s that, and in fact after the rooster loses you never see the
rooster again. In a robot fight operators could form rivalries with one another, and people
could develop favorites as just because a robot loses doesn’t mean it’s gone forever.
24
Ocampo, Luis Miguel
Blood and Oil
Going on that note the competition is more sustainable. Earlier I mentioned that some roosters
were worth thousands of dollars, which seems like a waste in case said rooster loses just one
fight. In the case of fighting robots while a fighting robot could require a little more time
investment and technical knowhow to build, it can fight for years. A damaged robot can be
repaired, a dead rooster is never coming back, so at the very least you don’t have to start from
square 1 every time you lose a match. Upgrading a robot could also be a one time cost, rather
than pumping a rooster full of antibiotics and vitamins that you really have to maintain in
order to see real effects. Overall it should be cheaper and more humane to compete with
fighting robots rather than fighting roosters.
While I don’t actually foresee us replacing sabong any time soon, and admittedly replacing it
on such a grand scale with a technology that we still haven’t grasped yet seems unlikely for
now, I think in the future we should take this into consideration. It is not only more humane,
but could find a place in the heart of our people just as sabong did. It encourages innovation
and a more progressive Filipino people, and if our government loves to sing praises of our
people’s ability to adapt, so maybe it’s time we adapt to a more advanced blood sport.
25

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Blood and Oil: Robot Fights as an Alternative to Sabong

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OCAMPO, Luis Miguel, F. [Word count: 6,994]

have people do that today right?

also be a ruthless or cutthroat competition.1

Blood Sport, ​available at ​https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/blood%20sport.​

the ring against his own will.

alive and well in our country.

swallow for the people.

having sex the night before will cause you to lose.14

leaving nothing behind, we introduce something new? An alternative ‘bloodsport’ that

replaced the roosters with robots?

matches would go on until one robot could not fight anymore.24

Fight Club Rules

might land on the organizers’ laps.

Who Gets to Fight

nearly any kind of robot, with a few exceptions.

the rules highlight is a serious concern and grounds for disqualification.37

do not have a good understanding of them.

The bet taker is defined under said law as:

might be some differences when it comes to betting on robots as opposed to roosters.

entirely viable solution either.

stricter criteria for selecting them.

RC cars with weapons built on them.

use, and possibly the range of control.

to commit that crime.

this might be a good start.

have some fight in it from a different point of view.

be equipped with knowledge to determine whether or not a robot is incapacitated. It doesn’t

inform Inspector B on what to expect and how to handle it.

parallel then legislators are free to determine who can be a judge.

score the biggest bouts.

become professional judges themselves.

pay to put a little more thought into a robot fighting pit.

costs for the arena.

also implement them safely.

The Philippine Gamebot Commission

might be best to leave it up to a commission like the Philippine Gamefowl Commission to

that specializes in drones and mechanics.

replacing sabong with fighting robots.

Blood or Oil? Is it Worth it?

would be a plus as opposed to killing roosters for enjoyment.

fighting robots rather than fighting roosters.

You might also like

Blood Sport, available at https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/blood%20sport.