Serrano prays for justice

The fight isn’t over for Adamson junior basketball star Encho Serrano, a 17-year-old wunderkind who was ruled ineligible by the UAAP Board after leading the Baby Falcons to an 11-1 record and topping the race for MVP honors in statistical points this season.

A lawyer has taken the cudgels for Serrano on a pro bono basis. A basketball fan, the lawyer has declined to comment on the ongoing court cases that involve Serrano because of his participation. His best friend is a former PBA player and his only interest is to protect Serrano’s rights as an athlete and human being.

The word is a case will be filed against the UAAP Board for contempt of court, possibly today. Last Feb. 8, Manila Regional Trial Court executive judge Reynaldo Alhambra issued an ex parte TRO on the basis of Serrano’s petition to call off the UAAP junior games scheduled the next day. The TRO was good for 72 hours and the sheriff served the notice that was received in behalf of the UAAP Board at UST as host school before 5 p.m. that same day.

The order was served with validity and the UAAP Board should have complied with the TRO to call off the games which decided the Final Four pairings. Is the UAAP Board above the law? Two days later, Serrano and his mother Annalyn appeared before the Manila court to pursue the case for an extension of the TRO for 30 days. The case was raffled off and sent to judge Virgilio Macaraeg of Manila Regional Trial Court Branch No. 37. The hearing turned out to be a marathon session from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. with Serrano breaking down on the witness stand and crying unabashedly. He said he never cheated, he never lied and all he wanted to do was to play basketball and secure a better future for his estranged mother and two sisters.

Serrano was cleared to play by the UAAP Board after Adamson submitted a corrected form known as the Varsity Athletes Information System (VAIS) to the league via e-mail with the promise to submit a duly signed version in hard copy. He was initially questioned on his age and his Secondary Schools Permanent Record which didn’t include a two-year stint with St. Vincent’s Academy in Apalit, Pampanga. But Serrano presented an NSO confirmation of his birth certificate and later, academic documents from St. Vincent’s.

“It was clear that Serrano, as an outstanding player, was being harassed,” a source said. “First, rival schools tried to put him down on the basis of age but Encho proved he was on the level. Then, they called attention to the missing St. Vincent’s documents. But there was no motive to hide those documents because he never got a grade from St. Vincent’s. He passed Grade 6 at Jose Escaler Elementary School and was accepted at Mapua as a Grade 7 student. Encho was enrolled at St. Vincent’s in Grade 7 but failed in his first year and dropped in his second. His papers from St. Vincent’s were misplaced but Mapua accepted him anyway because he passed at Jose Escaler. So when he transferred to Adamson, Mapua forwarded his transcripts including the subjects in summer that he passed to finish Grade 7.”

The source said when rival schools couldn’t disqualify Serrano on the basis of age and the missing St. Vincent’s documents, they went after him on a flimsy reason – that Adamson failed to submit the signed hard copy of his VAIS.

Last Monday, judge Macaraeg rejected the petition to extend the TRO for 30 days, citing the omission in submitting a signed VAIS and the inconclusive outcome of Serrano’s MVP pursuit. The petition had mentioned that Serrano’s MVP hopes were jeopardized unfairly by the disqualification. Serrano’s lawyer has filed a motion for reconsideration and a hearing is set on Monday.

It must be noted that in Serrano’s moves to go to court, Adamson is not a party. He’s doing this on his own, not just for himself but for other players who may be similarly situated in the future. “There is no rule in the UAAP that failure to submit a signed hard copy of the VAIS constitutes a penalty of ineligibility and forfeiture of games,” said a source. “The decision to penalize Encho and Adamson can only be described as capricious and whimsical. Fair is fair. It’s so obvious that rival schools stood to benefit from this decision. This isn’t the first time that the UAAP Board has gone out of its way to destroy an athlete’s career to protect selfish interests. Encho is only 17, he’s had a hard life. His parents split up when he was seven and at 13, he quit school to work as a construction laborer and a tricycle driver to pay for the schooling of his sisters in Apalit. The UAAP Board could’ve shown some compassion for this kid who’s clearly the most outstanding player in the UAAP juniors this season. Instead, they acted like heartless executioners.”

Adamson has reportedly submitted a letter to the UAAP Board requesting a dialogue on this issue. It appears that Adamson is reluctant to bang heads with the UAAP Board and wants to settle this disagreement amicably. For Serrano, it seems pointless to pursue his case because the Final Four games started last Tuesday. His petition hopes to cancel the results of the games and reinstate Adamson’s 11-1 record. That isn’t likely as his case has been overtaken by events and his pursuit is now academic. But he’s taken his fight to a different level. He wants to safeguard the rights of other athletes and protect them from unjust decisions by the UAAP Board. A Congressman has heard about Serrano’s case and is set to call for an inquiry into the matter. That could put the UAAP Board in a serious bind, the same kind of bind where the Senate exposed its unfair ruling on enforcing two years of residency for high school graduates transferring from one UAAP school to another.