UAAP: The fall guys of the Jerie Pingoy rule

Moments before the senate hearing on the new UAAP residency rule, league board president Nilo Ocampo could be seen conferring with some of his fellow UAAP board members, wondering how they, humble administrators of a private amateur league, would explain this mess. [Related: Sen. Pia Cayetano decries high school residency rule] Perhaps Ocampo was nervous. For years, the league's prestige outshone its own controversies and demons. The sponsors flocked, the ratings climbed and school spirit soared. But the specters of haphazard residency rules finally caught up with them. Now the issue of recruitment regulations, or the lack thereof, have made their way to halls of the Philippine senate. Besides Fr. Max Rendon from Adamson University, the rest of the UAAP representatives came from the minority split of the 5-2 vote for the rule: Ocampo and Junel Baculi from National University, Ricky Palou and Em Fernandez from Ateneo, professor Ronualdo Dizer from UP, and Rene Villa, their legal counsel. Ateneo and UP were the two dissenting schools, while NU was barred from voting as last season's hosts. Representatives from La Salle, University of the East and the University of Santo Tomas were nowhere to be seen. But most conspicuously absent was Far Eastern University's board representative Anton Montinola, Jerie Pingoy's spurned suitor. The moment it was plain that Pingoy was taking his talents to Katipunan, Montinola used the amendments committee to launch his parting shot: under the guise of residency, Pingoy would be banished from the bright lights of the Smart Araneta Coliseum for two years so that he may understand loyalty above all, and so others may learn the same. Senator Pia Cayetano offered a microphone to the board, only to find the bellicose voices in the boardroom had gone silent. Instead they left Ocampo with the minority struggling to rationalize the limits of a twisted and vengeful love they did not even support. "Should we hold [student-athletes] back because we feel that we've given them so much?" the senator asked the room. But any pretense to a fair debate vanished as Sen. Pia Cayetano, both prosecutor and judge, gave her witnesses the floor. A consultant from the Department of Education testified against restraining students from academic pursuits. Officers from the Council for the Welfare of Children defended the rights of a child. Doctors and physicians warned against squandering an athlete's peaking years in demoralizing environments. "Show me a free, democratic country that requires two years of residency," dared the senator. Even the parents of the athletes had a chance to tug at Ocampo's heartstrings. Let my son don the blue and white like his idol, Chris Tiu, urged Jerry Pingoy, Jerie's father. Don't deprive my daughter of a UP scholarship, pleaded Vic Bartolome, father of juniors MVP Mikee. Sen. Pia Cayetano was visibly moved on many occasions, overwhelmed by the fricking, her word, not mine, ridiculousness of the new rule. After the hearing, Sen. Pia Cayetano calmed down and downplayed her role in all this. "Hindi ako nananakot. That's not my style," she said. But the message she sent was unmistakable. The arguments slamming the rule made the member schools look shortsighted at best, and callous mercenaries at worst. And for three long hours Ocampo and the board simply sat there with eyes cast down. The cards have been laid on the table. The new residency rule is a farcical attempt to combat obscene recruitment promises made by schools or on their behalf. The hearing established that student-athletes can't take the fall for an amateur league blinded by creeping professionalization. But whether the league has the strength to finally be honest with itself on the matter remains to be seen. But that won't be Ocampo's concern, at least not directly. It's a matter for Fr. Rendon to preside over when Adamson hosts the upcoming Season 76. That afternoon, Ocampo's concern was more immediate, if not apologetic. "I'm just here to represent the board," he told Palou, Baculi and the rest of the gathering. It was a refrain he repeated then and throughout the hearing as both the current board president, and the fall guy of this UAAP board and all the boards that came before. - AMD, GMA News