UAAP: Senator Pia Cayetano has harsh words for swimming boycott amidst residency row

Senator Pia Cayetano condemned the orchestrated boycott among several UAAP member schools in the women's swimming jousts today, as certain schools withdrew their swimmers in protest of the temporary restraining order placed on the league's residency rules.

For clarification, the other schools: DLSU, UST, UE, and Adamson has swum in men's events and women's events except the ones with Mikee.

— UPFM AthleticsPortal (@UPFMWPortal) September 20, 2013

De La Salle University, University of Santo Tomas, University of the East, and Adamson opted not to participate in the categories where Mikee Bartolome, who successfully petitioned for a TRO to allow her to swim for the University of the Philippines, was fielded, leaving only Ateneo de Manila University as UP's opposition.

I condemn the actions of all UAAP board members and officials who orchestrated the swim meet boycott. Shame on u.

— pia cayetano (@piacayetano) September 20, 2013

Cayetano released a statement crucifying the boycott, calling it "a sad day in Philippine sports."

"I condemn the boycott instigated by certain school officials  at the UAAP swimming competitions in support of the UAAP Board's brazen refusal to abide by the court rulings affirming Mikee Bartolome's right to swim in the school of her choice," she said. "There's nothing to gain from the boycott, except to send the message that the UAAP is too high and too proud to take orders from anyone, including from our honorable courts, even if they trample on the rights of student-athletes.

Cayetano also said that the boycott only harmed their own athletes and said the UAAP favored a "culture of protectionism in support of their narrow institutional interests."

Ateneo later issued a statement saying, "We were invited to join the boycotting of events but we felt that it is unfair to our athletes who have trained hard for months for this competition to just sit it out.

"On a related matter, we feel that the gestures of protest such as walking out and outbreaks in the stands by spectators provide all our athletes, not just from the women's team, unnecessary distraction from the competition."

National University and Far Eastern University are not competing at all in the swimming tourney.

Ateneo and UP were the only member schools who voted against the new two-year residency requirement for students from UAAP high schools enrolling to in another UAAP school for college.

Earlier this month, former two-time juniors MVP Mikee Bartolome. who graduated from UST, successfully secured a TRO from the Quezon City court allowing her to immediately compete for the four-time defending champions, UP.

The boycott came in response to a temporary restraining order issued by the Quezon City court on September 3, specifically ordering the UAAP "to cease and desist from imposing the two-year residency rule and allow the plaintiff, Anna Dominique A. Bartolome 'Mikee' to be eligible in the UP swimming line-up so that she can participate in the UAAP swimming competition senior division this coming September 19, 2013."

The league then barred Bartolome from competing under its old one-year residency rule that requires her old high school, UST, to sign her release papers. The court followed that up with another order dated September 18, ordering that Bartolome be allowed to compete.

The newest order said reverting to the old rule "had no clear basis," and de facto barred the UAAP from enforcing any kind of residency rule. "Pending the determination of the nature and effect of the said [two-year] amendment, to allow defendant UAAP to unilaterally revert to the former rule would effectively trivialize and render moot the more important issue of the validity or constitutionality of the two year residency requirement," said the ruling.

It also reaffirmed the previous TRO by concluding that "[D]efendant UAAP may promulgate rules to regulate the affairs of its members, the allegation that there has always been an existing 'residency requirement' adopted by the defendant UAAP for the students/athletes of its member universit[ies] does not and cannot in any way diminish the power of the courts to inquire into the validity of these rules. This is especially true in this case where the constitutionality of the rule is one of the main issues to be resolved after the trial on the main case." - AMD, GMA News