Bikers at the Sabong (Chicken Fight)

By Ernie Cabreana

Ernie Biker

It was a perfect day that one day in 1965 to go for a ride on our Harleys. There were fifteen of us guys with no women tagging along. I suggested we ride to the chicken fights at Dondoy's near Lopez Lake and eat some fine Filipino food. Everyone agreed and looked forward to eating some adobo.

I told my gang of my sabong experience back in 1949... when I scattered the chickens showing off with my hot rod. Told the guys to behave and not scare the people and chickens with our loud bikes. Warned them to shut off our engines far enough from the arena and push our machines the rest of the way.

We had a nice time at the sabong and enjoyed eating some delicious Filipino Food. The best was Rosie Tajon's steaks. Sonny Javier, considered the Godfather of the manongs and head sabongero remembered me. He teasingly would shake his finger at me at times like warning me to behave.

A couple of hours later, we decided to ride to the beach. We pushed our machines away from the arena and didn't fire up our motors until we were out far enough to not cause any problems. The dirt road out came to a stop a quarter mile out, turning right to Lopez Lake Road. A car ahead of us had a problem but didn't want our help. Directly ahead was a step hill and Nash Guerrero and Frank Miranda who were leading, went around the car and took off up the hill. The rest of us followed.

When we got to the top, we looked down and could see the chicken fight from around the bend. Everybody was looking up at us and we saw this old pick-up kicking up dust driving towards us. It was Sonny Javier and another guy. He waited for us as we came down and he was one Mad Pinoy!! They were angry because the rangers might have seen the motorcycles on top of the hill and discovered the sabong on their way over to chase us off.

With a final wave of his finger at me, Sonny told me "you're still a panggulo Ernie". Next day my mother called me. She said I was the talk through the Filipino grapevine... about my motorcycle gang at the sabong. There were many angry Pinoys that day.

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