‘Play at your own risk’

The UAAP is now addressing systemic loopholes that may have led to the controversy regarding UPIS senior Jozhua General. The league banned the Naga native from playing after the Junior Fighting Maroons’ dramatic first victory, a historic quadruple overtime win over the Adamson Baby Falcons midway through the first round of eliminations. In addition, the win was nullified, since General is being retroactively considered ineligible to play.

This writer has directly and indirectly been receiving calls and messages from UAAP officials adding information or trying to point out errors in Saturday’s piece. One official even texted my superior at ABS-CBN to insist that I was unaware that General went to a Metro Manila high school before going to Grade 7. As I wrote Saturday, “He was recruited to play for a high school basketball program in Metro Manila. However, he was having problems with his academics due to his relative youth. Worse, an authority figure on the team was allegedly bullying him almost daily. After just over one quarter, his parents Jojo and Christine pulled him out of school. He was so disheartened, he didn’t even want to play basketball anymore.”

To be clear, this writer decided to withhold the name of the high school concerned, since it would also lead to revelation of the designation and eventually, identity of the “authority figure” who traumatized General in the first place. That authority figure is now involved with the athletics program of a UAAP member school, hence the suspicion that the campaign against General is personal. Since the family is gathering evidence and consulting their lawyers regarding taking legal action against the concerned official, it was better that the identity not be revealed until there is proof of wrongdoing.

After the phone calls and messages and additional information, here is what we have further gathered:

1. General was allowed to play, but was supposedly listed among those athletes whose documents were incomplete or insufficient, according to a UAAP official who requested anonymity. Apparently, the UAAP allows schools to field players in such a situation, a sort of “play at your own risk” philosophy. However, the fact that he was allowed to play and that no new evidence was brought to light means that he should not be retroactively punished. It brings up the curious timing of the decision to ban him, right after UPIS’s first and only victory in the tournament. 

2. It is unclear if the Department of Education was made aware that General studied in a Metro Manila high school before completing Grade 7 at Lourdes School of Mandaluyong. So far, what has been addressed is the issue of which graduation the DepEd considers more valid, not General’s Grade 6 graduation from Naga Parochial School in 2008, but his Grade 7 completion at LSM in 2010. Whether or not this was the fault of UPIS or the General family is unclear, and what impact it will have, if any, on the DepEd opinion on the case. This is the question mark on UP’s side, since they had previously revealed General’s two graduations to the UAAP and DepEd.

3. The form to be filled out by prospective high school athletes only has one space provided for the name of the grade school the player graduated from, but the space is both at the top and bottom half of the form. In this case, whoever filled out the form for put Lourdes School on one space and Naga on the other, according to a UAAP source.

4. The UAAP is supposedly putting together its rulebook, which it will make public, according to the same official. The league cited an unwritten rule governing incoming college players which it applied to General, who is in high school. The tradition being upheld supposedly insists that a player must only have one graduation from the previous level.

5. The example used against General was not the case of Maui Villanueva, who graduated from UPIS, played for Higashiyama High School in Japan, then had his foreign playing years deducted from his UAAP seniors eligibility with De La Salle. This writer theorized that that was the example used because it appeared more appropriate. Instead, it was the Jojo Duncil case, wherein he was allegedly made to appear older to qualify for a certain tournament, then revealed to be younger when he was playing his final year. But the General issue is not a question of age, but playing years.

This now begs the question, is there a written rulebook, after all? All this writer’s inquiries have not found anyone who has seen written rules of the UAAP. It would be helpful if there was a rulebook. Though amateur rules are more or less universal, rules on eligibility are not. Would there even be an actual rule regarding scenarios wherein a player has more than one graduation? That is highly doubtful, since it is a genuinely rare occurrence.

After General’s banishment, the Junior Fighting Maroons lost to UST as a result of a basket scored with half a second remaining, then fell to De La Salle Zobel by five points. Given the lift their four-overtime win over Adamson gave them before it was summarily erased by the league, they could have been looking at a respectable 3-2 record instead of 0-5. Imagine the difference that would have made to the boys and their parents.

Having no clear rules on this scenario truly leaves a league susceptible to campaigning and bias. It also allows for the rules to be implemented on a selective basis, with varying interpretations. The General family is trying to ascertain if this is what was done to their son.

Jozhua’s father Jojo told this writer that he hopes that the case will be resolved soon. As time passes, Jozhua is losing more and more chances to play in his final year. But the Generals are also hoping that all these rules will be finally put down and clarified once and for all, to save future players from this kind of heartbreak.