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Pia Cayetano launches online petition vs. UAAP rule

Sen. Pia Cayetano. (NPPA Images)

Senator Pia Cayetano is doing all she can to help scratch the UAAP’s controversial eligibility rule.

The senator, a former University of the Philippines varsity volleyball player, scheduled a Senate hearing for Thursday and invited the UAAP Board to attend. But the Board requested a postponement of the hearing, forcing Cayetano to reset it for April 1.


Undaunted, Cayetano initiated an online petition entitled “NoToNewUAAPRuleBySenPia” that seeks to get enough support to reverse the so-called “Jerie Pingoy Rule” which was amended by the UAAP Board last March 6.

Sen. Pia Cayetano's online petition photo.
Sen. Pia Cayetano's online petition photo.

 

Under the revised eligibility rule, UAAP high school players who will transfer and bring their act to another UAAP-affiliated school will now have to undergo a two-year residency.

Through her official Twitter account,  the legislator posted:
 


 
Cayetano, a known sports enthusiast, stated the rule “curtails the freedom of young student-athletes to choose which college he or she wants to study in and play for.”

“It denies them of their rights to develop their full potential and goes against the Constitutional mandate to promote sports, especially among our youth. The new UAAP rule is an unreasonable limit of an athlete’s freedom of choice and academic freedom to decide which college to enter into,” she added.

“Please join me and call on the UAAP Board to reverse this unjust rule and support our student-athletes, instead of holding them back.”

Earlier, the senator published an open letter to the UAAP Board, where she firmly stated her opposition to the new UAAP rule.

"In my humble opinion as an athlete, a parent of both a college and a high school athlete, and a lawyer, the 2-year residency that is currently applied to transferring college students, as well as any residency rule for high school students, deny athletes of their rights to develop their full potential," part of her letter read. "It goes against the Constitutional mandate to promote sports especially among our youth, and is an unreasonable limit on an athlete’s freedom of choice as well as academic freedom to choose which college to enter into."

RELATED LINKS:

New UAAP rule is 'final'; Ateneo, UP voted against it 

UAAP fans take to twitter following new eligibility rule

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