Atong Ang has left the Philippines – Remulla

MANILA, Philippines — Gambling tycoon Charlie “Atong” Ang has already left the country through the “backdoor,” Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla confirmed on Tuesday.

“He used the backdoor,” Remulla said in a chance interview on the sidelines of the 20th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Transnational Crime in Makati City on Tuesday.

Remulla declined to provide further details on when and how the business tycoon managed to depart from the Philippines using the backdoor.

READ: PNP verifying reports of Atong Ang fleeing PH

He also did not disclose Ang’s last known location, saying the investigation was ongoing.

Ang is currently being tracked by authorities after the Laguna and Batangas courts consecutively issued arrest orders in January.

The actions were in connection with multiple criminal complaints, including 15 counts of kidnapping and serious illegal detention, and four counts of kidnapping with homicide, filed against him.

The charges stem from the reported kidnapping and killing of at least 34 sabungeros, who allegedly cheated in cockfighting games linked to him between 2021 and 2022.

Last December 9, the Department of Justice indicted Ang and at least 21 others — including 15 police officers— for their alleged involvement in the disappearance of the sabungeros.

READ: Atong Ang still at large after 20 police raids since January

The investigation into the case of the sabungeros, who vanished as early as 2021, was revived following revelations of Julie “Dondon” Patidongan last year.

Patidongan said the sabungeros were allegedly abducted and strangled to death by a group of policemen, who then dumped their bodies in Taal Lake in Batangas.

He alleged that the killings were carried out on the orders of his former boss, Ang, who has denied the allegations. /dl /apl /atm