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Senate holds hearing on piracy, red-shirting, and illegal incentives in college athletics

Senate holds hearing on piracy, red-shirting, and illegal incentives in college athletics

"I hope you voluntarily change any existing rules that you have. If you don't I will force it upon you through the law because it is a human right which no one can deny," said Senator Pia S. Cayetano to representatives of the difference collegiate sports organizations. "This is a formality as far as I am concerned."

Early on during the first public hearing on pioneering measures that would institutionalize the rights of the country’s student-athletes and address their alleged commercialization, Cayetano showed that she was not kidding around.

“The student-athlete is, first and foremost, a student, and secondly, an athlete. To this end, his or her rights as a student shall be paramount at all times,” said Cayetano, the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Education, Arts and Culture, and a varsity volleyball player during her college years.

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She added that the primary objective of Senate Bill No. (SBN) 2166, the ‘Magna Carta of Student-Athletes,’ is to protect student-athletes from any discriminatory policy that could hinder or derail their academic growth and athletic development.

SBN 2166 was filed by Cayetano following recent controversies that hounded the school sports ranks, particularly on the issue of residency.

This was brought about recently because of the case of Jerie Pingoy, a high school graduate of the Far Eastern University who transferred to the Ateneo de Manila University for college. FEU proposed a two-year sit-out period for athletes transferring from one UAAP school to another which prevented Pingoy from playing for the Blue Eagles.

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However, proponents of the two-year residency rule stressed that other schools are poaching their athletes by offering incentives outside what is allowable.

"You have to talk amongst yourselves in the UAAP, that you have a piracy problem,” countered Cayetano. “This problem persists partly because parents allow their children to be treated like a commercial commodity," said Cayetano referring to student-athletes getting “scholarships with benefits.”

In her bill Cayetano pointed out that student-athlete’s should be free to choose whichever school they prefer. She accepted that a collegiate transfer should merit a one-year sit-out period.

Other important parts of SBN 2166 are the student-athlete’s right to healthcare, right to be allowed to compete internationally, and the right to have continued scholarship even in case of injuries.

For their part, the UAAP at least from the persecptive of UP representative Ronualdo Dizer suggested making new rules. “There are perceived to be immoral and unethical practices in recruitment, in the absence of rules," he explained.

An in house solution for Dizer revolves around limiting the contact between high school students and alumni/boosters from other schools. He proposed that high school seniors would not be able to talk to boosters six months before their graduation.

FEU representative Mark Molina agreed with Dizer and added that the UAAP schools could police themselves. He suggested that all school should appoint a compliance officer who will then be tasked to check if another school is playing by the rules. "All funding coming from alumni must go through the school. It's up to the school to self-report,” Molina explained.

He later added that they are amenable to scrapping the two-year residency rule. “Maybe it's a wrong rule. But it was trying to solve a bigger problem,” he said pertaining to the fact of skyrocketing commercialization in the collegiate ranks.