PanaloKO Largada: The Release Call Before a Cockfight

Largada comes from Spanish, and cockpit accounts print its short form as a shout. The 2022 facts come before the vocabulary: online e-sabong was stopped nationwide on 3 May 2022 by President Duterte’s spoken order, and Executive Order No. 9, signed by President Marcos on 28 December 2022, formally suspended e-sabong operations nationwide. For the penalties around cockfighting, the PD 1602 penalty list prints them section by section.

What largada means as a word

Wiktionary’s Spanish entry for largada says it comes from largar plus the ending -ada, and defines it as “start (of a race)” and “starting line”. The Portuguese entry gives the same “start of a race”. The sabong form is the shorter call, so the page treats the word and the call as one family.

What happens just before the release

The accounts describe a short sequence. Here it is in order, using only what the sources print.

1. The two birds are paired and the pairing is agreed, a step covered under the ulutan before the fight.
2. The tari blade is attached, usually to the left leg, according to Stuart.
3. The handlers let the birds peck at each other, as the Lio account describes.
4. The casador calls Larga na, and the kristos take over.
5. The handlers release the birds.

Who releases the birds

The National Federation of Gamefowl Breeders unified derby rules define a handler, also called a soltador, as “one who release a cock in a cockfight”. The same rules define the fight itself as a cockfight or soltada: “a fight between two (2) cocks armed with knives (tari)”. The word soltada is the sibling of largada, since both name letting go, and the federation text keeps them in the same rule.

Largada beside the roles in the law

Presidential Decree No. 449 does not print largada. It does define three roles around a fight, and none of them is the caller of the release.

For the neighbouring terms, what bulang means covers the Visayan word for the fight and blade, and stag and bullstag derby covers how events are split by bird age.

One example from the sources

Two accounts show the call as a hinge between preparation and fight.

1. Stuart: the crowd erupts into calls only after the casador says Larga na.
2. The Lio account: the announcer’s Larga is followed by screams of Meron and Wala.

Sources used: Wiktionary (largada), Godofredo U. Stuart Jr., Sabong / Cockfighting 101 (stuartxchange.org), the Lio, El Nido account on ironwulf.net, the NFGB Unified Derby Rules, and PD 449 on lawphil.net.