Board denies UST appeal to tap Duncil

The UAAP board yesterday denied defending champion University of Santo Tomas’ petition seeking to allow Jojo Duncil to suit up with the Tigers in the ongoing 70th UAAP senior basketball tournament.

University of the Phil. chancellor Sergio Cao presided over the meeting in lieu of chair and league president Fr. Ermito de Sagon, OP, who had to beg off from the deliberations since UST is the one involved in the case.

The board called for an emergency meeting after UST sent a petition letter, signed by UST rector Fr. Ernesto Arceo, OP, earlier this week. It unanimously voted against the petition.

“No merit, the decision made last time stood,” said one board member who requested anonymity.

“The board has decided, all is fine and everything has been settled,” another board representative said.

Duncil, last year’s Finals MVP, announced his decision to forego his final year with the Tigers to join next month’s PBA rookie draft two weeks before the start of the UAAP 70th season.

But de Sagon admitted a week later that it was the school’s decision to let him go because of the eligibility issue that cropped up days before the opening of the league.

De Sagon himself admitted that Duncil has two birth certificates from the National Statistics Office, one stating he was born in 1982 and another in 1983.

If he were born in 1982, Duncil would not have been eligible to play this season because the age limit for senior players is 24.

There were however reports that Duncil’s camp has filed a petition in the court seeking to reconcile his two birth certificates even as he maintained that he was indeed born in 1983, thus making him eligible to play for one last year.

The Tigers have sorely missed the services of Duncil as they struggled in the early going of the tournament, losing their first two games to the UE Warriors and the FEU Tams, before beating the Adamson Falcons, 96-84, last Thursday. – Joey Villar