Philippine Sports and Entertainment Portal Online

MANILA, July 1, 2009 -- Player eligibility, the ever-present scalpers and game fixing, three perennial problems in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP), will be dealt with firmly by the league, according to this year's host Far Eastern University (FEU) and league president, Anton Montinola.

Once the 72nd UAAP season takes off at the Araneta Coliseum on July 11, the board will no longer take on questions regarding eligibility, Montinola said on Tuesday's PSA forum at the Shakey's along UN Avenue.

“We already have a gentleman's agreement within the board to bring up questions on eligibility ahead of time and not in the latter part of the season,” said Montinola.

Controversies on player eligibility have cropped up before, and there appears to be a pattern where questions arise down the stretch and normally concern players on the top four basketball teams.

“Yes, it has happened. So, we have asked each member school to raise their questions now, if they have any, because it suggests malice, bad faith and conduct unbecoming of a gentleman if done in the last stretches of the tournament,” said the president of the UAAP Season 72.

The last serious case involved La Salle players Mark Benitez and Tim Gatchalian in 2005, and the Green Archers were forced to surrender the championship trophy they won by beating the FEU Tamaraws in the finals.

Montinola said it's not a sign of a good sport “to hold on to information (against player eligibility) and bring them out later on just to disrupt the performance of a certain team and so we call on them to bring it out now.”

He said the board will meet on Thursday to go over the papers of all the players.

Montinola also addressed on Tuesday's PSA Forum at Shakey's UN Avenue is how the league can cope with scalping, and the very high demand for tickets, especially during games between Ateneo and La Salle.

Games between the two popular team are so special among their respective alumni that ticket with a face value of less than P500 pesos are being sold for as high as P10,000.

And the problem is that there are takers.

Montinola said for this season, they will sell two sets of tickets in days featuring Ateneo and La Salle, like in Aug. 9.

The game is set at 1 p.m. at the Big Dome to be followed by FEU vs UE at 5 p.m.

After the Ateneo-La Salle game, fans will be asked to clear the Big Dome, and two hours later, the next game will be played.

Montinola said by doing this, the UAAP actually doubled the number of tickets for the big game.

“We'll have two sets of tickets for August 9. In short, we will double the supply. And since we're talking about the law of supply and demand, then the prices should go down,” said Montinola in the session sponsored by Shakey’s, Accel, Outlast Battery and the Philippine Amusements and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR).

But it's no assurance as well that ticket prices won't go sky-high for an Ateneo-La Salle match.

“It's a fact that even if you hold the game at 3 p.m. people will still watch it. But we want to do something about scalping.

"And we at FEU, since we only host this once every eight years, want to give it a try. This is our chance. We think it will work. If it does not, then at least we tried,” he said.

On game-fixing, which is almost impossible to prove, Montinola said it's up to the eight competing schools to educate their players, coaches and other officials about the situation.

“We need to be vigilant. It's said that this is just college basketball and I don't know why these people (syndicates) meddle with our affairs,” he said.