From The Arena To The Altar Of Service: How Pitmaster Foundation Fought For Livelihood And Legacy

When the pandemic plunged the world into uncertainty, it wasn’t just hospitals and households that struggled.

Atong Ang—often viewed through the lens of controversy—has proven to be a paradox of power and purpose. I Photo: Pitmaster Foundation Facebook

Entire industries ground to a halt—and with them, the silent army of workers who kept the everyday economy alive: tricycle drivers, gamefarm caretakers, sabong frontliners, and rural breeders among them.

It was in this fragile time that the Pitmaster Foundation emerged—not as a public spectacle, but as a steady hand.

Behind this foundation is a name both familiar and formidable: Charlie “Atong” Ang. And at its core was a belief often forgotten in times of crisis—that dignity begins with livelihood.

Through its e-sabong platform, Pitmaster preserved the beating heart of the cockfighting industry, allowing hundreds of thousands linked to it—from farmhands to fowl handlers—to continue working when nearly every other door was shut.

But the Foundation’s real legacy would go beyond digital innovation. It would lie in its unprecedented giving.

Over ₱1 billion. That is the staggering amount the Pitmaster Foundation has poured into communities, LGUs, and frontliners since the onset of the pandemic.

From donating ambulances to underserved municipalities, to providing financial aid and PPEs for healthcare workers, to leading tree-planting drives that healed deforested zones from Real to Siniloan in Laguna, the Foundation turned revenues into rescue—and gaming into giving.

These were not token gestures. They were part of a sweeping CSR initiative that earned international recognition.

Most notably, the Pitmaster Foundation clinched honors at the prestigious Stevie Awards, known globally as the gold standard for business and social excellence. It was also cited by multiple national award-giving bodies for its swift pandemic response and public-private collaboration model.

The awards were more than plaques on a wall—they were catalysts. They validated a truth long buried under bias: that even institutions born from the margins of mainstream approval can become powerhouses of public service.

That philanthropy, when done with scale and sincerity, transcends origin stories. Atong Ang—often viewed through the lens of controversy—has proven to be a paradox of power and purpose.

Quietly, consistently, he has positioned the Foundation not just as a lifeline to an embattled industry but as a lifeblood to a nation in need.

Even with the e-sabong ban, the ripple effects of Pitmaster’s giving remain deeply embedded in the communities it served. The ambulances still roar across dusty provincial roads.

The trees continue their silent ascent. The food packs, relief missions, and health support—totaling over a billion pesos—have stitched threads of hope into the country’s social fabric.

In the end, the Pitmaster Foundation fought on two fronts: one for the survival of a tradition, the other for the salvation of lives. And in both arenas, it left a legacy not of betting, but of bettering—a gamble for good that paid off a thousandfold.

It is not every day that a foundation born in the shadows of controversy rises to become a movement of meaning.

But Pitmaster has done just that. In the time of COVID, it did not flinch. It fought—not for profit alone, but for people. And in doing so, it proved that even from the cockpit, one can lift others to flight.