THE petition filed by the parents of the high school basketball player who was prohibited from playing in the Cebu Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) was raffled off to a new judge yesterday.
Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Simeon Dumdum of Branch 7 will handle the case filed by spouses Danilo and Avah Aying in behalf of their 15-year-old child who is included in the roster of the University of San Carlos Baby Warriors.
Dumdum is the second judge to handle the case after RTC Judge Wilfredo Navarro of Branch 19 let go of the petition because one of the respondents is his friend.
Last Friday, the petitioners sought the intervention of the court to order officials of Cesafi to allow their child to play in the Cesafi basketball.
In their petition, they said their child was “unjustly” deprived by Cesafi’s two-year residency rule from playing in this year’s basketball games.
The petitioners said their son used to study at Don Bosco Technological Center which is also a Cesafi-member school. They said their child chose to go to Manila and enroll at San Beda College where he played varsity basketball. But when the coach who took him to Manila returned to Cebu, the basketball player also went home with him.
The petitioner’s son became part of the USC’s Baby Warriors. All 15 players of USC were given the go signal to play for the school in the 13th Cesafi Season.
However, last August 2 or the day before the tournament’s opening, USC received a letter from the Cesafi Screening Committee stating that the petitioner’s son is disqualified from playing.
The ruling, according to the petitioners, was made by Cesafi without any hearing.
Under the Cesafi rules, any high school student of a Cesafi-member school who transfers to another member school shall be required a minimum of two-year residency to qualify to play.
The rule wasn’t allegedly complied with by the petitioner’s son.
During USC’s first game, the petitioner’s son was called by the coach to play in the game’s second quarter.
However, Cesafi Commissioner Felix Tiukinhoy allegedly stood up from his seat and told the USC team “If you let that play, your game will be forfeited.”
“Everybody was stunned and all attention was focused on the petitioner’s son who at the time was at the center of the court. He shamefully walked towards the side and returned to his seat beside his teammates and already started crying,” the petitioners said.
They are seeking P50,000 in moral damages and asked the court to issue a temporary restraining order and injunction to stop Cesafi officials from barring the player from playing in the tournament.