Photo & story By Oliver Samson / Correspondent
A Kelso-Sweater exploded from the ground.
While afloat during the first encounter, the gamefowl struck its opponent with a big punch. The opponent sustained massive damage while airborne.
Wasting no time, it sank the slasher, now smeared with crimson, anew as the opponent wobbled when it touched the ground.
The year was 2010. The event was a 4-cock derby at Makati Coliseum.
The male-dominated arena was all eyes on the gaffer who tied the knife on the winning Kelso-Sweater—a young and petite lovely lady, who was only 22 at the time.
Robie Yu Panis, now 28, admitted she was nervous when she tied the slasher. It was her first time to equip a rooster at live derby. The aficionados who were watching her as she attached the blade made her even more nervous.
“I was sad because the rooster I armed ended up dehado [at a disadvantage],” Panis complained. “Most of the time our rooster is llamado [has the upper hand]. I felt nobody had favored our rooster because I was the gaffer—a girl and a neophyte. But I was so happy that I won on my first try.” A gaffer, called “taga tari” in Tagalog, is a person knowledgeable in the art of arming fighting cocks with gaff or gaffs on either or both legs.
Panis’s first victory inspired her to gaff more roosters. She won again and again, winning as well the eyes and the hearts of aficionados—young and old alike.
On point
THE number of women tying the slasher is growing, Panis said.
“Some are encouraged by their husband aficionados,” she said. “Others, I hope, are inspired by me.”
So far, Panis, known as the “Tari Princess,” is the only female gaffer fighting in the big leagues today.
“I enjoy and am happy, otherwise I won’t stay [with the game],” she said.
Panis has fought at Araneta, in Pasay, Cebu, Dumaguete and other parts of the country. She clashed and defeated top gaffers like Noli Estrellado and Albert Margen. Both men were her mentors.
She also won against prominent cockfighters like multi-time World Slasher Cup (WSC) Champion Rep. Patrick Antonio and 2016 WSC-1 winner Sony Lagon for several times.
“I idolize the likes of Antonio and Lagon,” she said. “I delight in the rare feeling each time I defeat them.”
Gaffers set knife at 12 o’clock and 30 minutes, 1 o’clock, and 1 o’clock and 30 minutes, Panis explained. She, however, prefers arming roosters with the 1 o’clock sight since she said their chickens have no problems with their feet.
Through years of experience, she has come to distinguish whether a rooster is on point or not.
The chicken is on point when its legs are reddish, when it demonstrates a cocky strut and calm yet alert, Panis explained.
“A rooster is on point if it has a good feel when held in hands,” she said. “This feel is very difficult to explain. You learn by experience.”
On point
PANIS did not see herself tying the knife after completing the course at the TJT Cocking Academy in 2010. Her primary intention was to study fowl medication. But as part of the course, she took gaffing skills. She was the only female in the academy’s 40th batch.
When she returned to Firebird Gamefarm, she shared what she learned at the academy. She told her team they were taught gaffing on the last day. Biboy Enriquez, her boss and Firebird Gamefarm owner, got interested in knowing what Panis had absorbed in knife-tying. So he asked her to show her newly-acquired skill to determine what she still needed to become a proficient gaffer.
Biboy asked professional gaffers, including Estrellado and Margen, to train Panis further. Both men make six figures in a month tying slashers.
Panis’s journey to the cockfighting world began in 2006 when she met Leandro Enriquez, who is now a retired hotelier, at a branch of a fitness center in Eastwood.
She started as an office staff at a hotel in Quezon City that Enriquez owned. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, she travelled to Enriquez’s Firebird Gamefarm, a 20-hectare gamefowl farm located at sitio Dalawang Kawayan, barangay Tandang Kutyo, Tanay, Rizal.
Panis did office works on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays until Enriquez sold the hotel in 2009.
Learning curve
PANIS was still working at the fitness center when Enriquez took her to the farm in 2006 to give her an idea of how one looks like. It was the first gamefowl farm she had ever visited. She grew up without having seen fowl raised for pit action.
“I was surprised at learning there were chickens for cockfighting,” she said. “All along I thought there were only table chickens. I was amazed at finding out that chickens have bloodlines and at how their pedigrees were recorded.”
After a month Panis resigned from the fitness club and joined Enriquez’s Firebird Gamefarm team. At first her task was receiving and answering calls and text messages from clients who were asking for tips on breeding, conditioning, medication, and other gamefowl-related concerns or inquiring on the prices of chickens the farm was selling.
The price of a trio in the country ranges from P100,000 to P25,000; a broodstag P25,000 to P10,000; and, a broodpullet P20,000 to P7,000. Some breeders let go of a broodstag from a proven family for P100,000.
Later on Panis was given the task of recording pedigree and inventory of chickens. Firebird ranges over 1,000 male chicks at about two-month old annually. A wingband, which serves as identification, is attached on each chicken before it’s set loose on the range.
Getting curious
PANIS got more curious about cockfighting after watching a live derby at the Araneta Coliseum, where she experienced for the first time the noise of bet-taking, the sudden outbursts when a rooster cleanly sinks the knife and the explosion of muscular screams at the end of each match.
“I have come to enjoy more of the cockpit when our own roosters fight,” she said.
Panis sometimes receives guests and clients at Firebird Gamefarm with a glass of fresh buko juice. She also accompanied Enriquez in making rounds to regularly de-worm chickens. She is especially busy during the stag season and cockfighting seminars.
Enriquez is a two-time WSC champion. He also won no less than a dozen of major derbies. His cockfighting career spans over 30 years in the big leagues.
Panis won two legs of a stag derby in Pasay in 2012.
“The first leg was full show of Whites,” she said. “The second leg was full show of Greys.”
She finished with 4 wins and 1 loss in a 5-cock derby in Cebu in 2010 and was solo runner-up in a cock competition in Dumaguete.
Image credits: Oliver Samson