EVEN THE country’s premiere collegiate sports league is not immune from dirty politics.
Just last August 28, President Aquino signed Republic Act (RA) 10676 or the Student-Athletes Protection Act junking the two-year residency enforced by the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) on high school athletes opting to play for another school in collegiate level.
Under the new law, student athletic associations like the UAAP and the National College Athletic Association (NCAA) are barred from imposing residency requirements on high school athletes who are transferring to another college.
Amid strong opposition by some UAAP-member schools, the bill’s proponent, Sen. Pia Cayetano, who is supposed to conduct inquiries “in aid of legislation,” was successful in having the bill passed. She might have probably forgotten that the issue of UAAP residency was clearly not in aid of legislation.
The publicity generated by her intervention has surely influenced other lawmakers in agreeing with the pretentious provisions of this law, which actually promotes athletes piracy.
With its successful high school athletic program, UST, among the eight UAAP-member schools, has always been the foremost victim of piracy.
Who can forget the controversy involving Ana Dominique Bartolome, a star swimmer from UST High School, who, just as UAAP Season 76 was about to begin, transferred to and represented the University of the Philippines, so that four UAAP-member schools boycotted the swimming competition.
Bartolome and her parents even filed a complaint against UST and UAAP and perhaps because Cayetano, a UP alumna, gave public comments supporting her, the judge ruled in her favor.
In 2010, Alyssa Valdez, arguably the best volleyball player in the country today, shifted and played for Ateneo de Manila University after getting all the benefits from her four-year stay as a high school volleyball player in UST. Together with her was Kim Fajardo, one of the assets of the De La Salle University’s Women’s Volleyball Team at present.
Much has also been said about Dindin Santiago, who after winning a championship with the Golden Tigresses in UAAP Season 72, opted to play for National University with her sister Jaja Santiago who also used to be a part of UST High School girls’ volleyball team.
Despite the mercenary ways of some athletes it has trained, UST has managed to keep afloat, even reclaiming the UAAP general championship last year.
Schools like UST invest on young people to develop their athletic and intellectual potential and in order for them to prepare for bigger competitions like UAAP. But RA 10676 puts to shame a school’s effort in training athletes and empowering them.
This law may promote freedom among young athletes to decide on where they would want to study and play for, but the fact they can easily shift their allegiance when lured with better prospects and offers by other schools means that the Cayetano law is actually abetting piracy and commercialization of varsity athletics rather than protecting athlete’s rights.
Despite the law’s discouragement of student-athletes from receiving huge bonuses aside from the benefits and incentives they should get from the schools they choose, no one can ever guarantee that there are no additional bonuses that elitist schools for the affluent usually employ to lure young players. Financial benefits for the students’ families, car, condominium units, and other bribes can be given clandestinely by schools desperate to get good athletes to play for them.
In short, stopping the commercialization of varsity sports and rampant piracy is better said than done. Even Cayetano cannot implement it, and implementing the law she crafted—through her subjudice intervention in the judiciary for it to rule against the residency rules of the private sector and her mockery of “in aid of legislation”—Senate hearings would be the least of her concerns, since she has done her part in ensuring that her alma mater, always at the tail-end of UAAP rankings, could pirate, oops, “lure” fresh talent from institutions like UST which has better-rounded sports programs that start from the grass roots and the basic-education level.
But more than a threat to their athletic programs, UAAP-member schools should consider the enactment of this law as a challenge to nurture their young athletes more, for them to gain their athletes’ loyalty.
As for the athletes, they should learn how to express gratitude to their respective schools that have helped them develop their skills, by staying and fulfilling their maximum playing years.
This should also set as a reminder for lawmakers and other government officials to focus more on their prime responsibilities as public servants and to not delve on matters involving the private sector.
