Aying vs. Cesafi

This paper’s banner on Saturday screamed “Stay out of sports.” This, in sum, was the argument raised by the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. (Cesafi) in their motion to lift the temporary restraining order earlier issued by RTC Cebu City Judge Simeon Dumdum, Jr. in favor of 15-year-old Scott Aying of the USC Baby Warriors.

The TRO was supposed to have allowed Aying to play for the remainder of the 13th Cesafi Season, even after Cesafi disqualified the young 6’1” cager for not having complied with Cesafi’s two-year residency rule.

Cesafi, in its motion, cited Supreme Court rulings that caution against intervening in sporting events should be exercised stating, that:

“[I]f legal notions were allowed to intrude in every level in the enforcement of rules of sporting events, it will result to anarchy and chaos as virtually every decision by an umpire or referee or sports judge could be subject to question. X x x Spectators will then have to await the result of sporting events, not from rafters or media but from announcements made by judges through court personnel reading aloud legal decisions.”

Cesafi further argued that the court, in issuing the TRO, in effect “vacated the decision of the Cesafi Board of Trustees disqualifying Aying from playing in the 2013 Cesafi Season, which is beyond the pale of its jurisdiction. Cesafi said that Aying, who was assisted by his parents in filing the injunction case failed to show that their son had a clear right to play and that “playing in a sporting event is never a right but a privilege contingent upon requirements of eligibility.”

Yes, I agree, that the courts have no business interfering in sports, especially in determining who wins or loses or how sports organizations like Cesafi chooses to run its league.

But, the courts can definitely settle justiciable issues especially in cases where a sports organization’s policy or rule tends to violate the parties’ constitutional rights. Aying’s counsel seems to want to play up the issue of child abuse in their petition for injunction vs. Cesafi. But I think that at the heart of this legal battle is whether or not Cesafi’s two-year residency rule, which is aimed at preventing “piracy” among Cesafi’s 10-member private schools, unduly impinges upon an athlete’s right to choose which school to go to and which school colors he wants to carry while in competition.

Interestingly, at about the same time the Aying vs. Cesafi legal drama was unfolding, another student athlete, swimmer Mikee Bartolome, took the UAAP to court after a similar two-year residency rule prohibited her from competing for the University of the Philippines swim team. Bartolome used to swim for the UST swimming team in high school. UAAP rules require athletes who transfer from one UAAP member school to another to sit out two years of competition.

Like Aying, Bartolome also obtained injunctive relief from the Quezon City RTC, which rejected the residency rule as one “that would defeat the purpose of athletic competition” and ordered that “talents and gifts like hers should be given the best of opportunity to develop and grow.”

Senator Pia Cayetano, a former college athlete and one of the staunch oppositors of residency rules imposed upon student athletes says that these rules are unconstitutional. In March this year, Cayetano wrote an open letter to the UAAP, asking the league to reconsider its residency rule for being unconstitutional —

“It goes against the constitutional mandate to promote sports especially among our youth, and is an unreasonable limit on an athlete’s freedom of choice as well as academic freedom to choose which college to enter into. X x x A student-athlete’s choice of university is influenced not only by athletics, but also by academics, campus life, and personal situation , and the 2-year residency encumbers their freedom of choice.”

Cayetano cited Section 19, Article 14, of the 1987 Constitution, which states that:

“(1) The State shall promote physical education and encourage sports programs, league competitions, and amateur sports, including training for international competitions, to foster self-discipline, teamwork, and excellence for the development of a healthy and alert citizenry.”