The president of the University of the Philippines (UP) issued a statement yesterday rejecting a Facebook post and message which came from one of the school’s regents wherein the latter advocated the use of violence against several basketball players of the Ateneo de Manila University.
UP and Ateneo are competing against each other in the men’s basketball finals of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 81.
In a statement posted on UP’s website and Facebook account, UP President Danilo Concepcion said that the state university is taking the regent’s statements seriously, even if they were made in jest.
He said: “I wish to make it clear the University of the Philippines takes these statements seriously and dissociates itself from the post and from the actuations of this regent, matters which I intend to take up with the Board of Regents.”
He added: “They do not in any way represent the values of the University and the high esteem in which it holds sportsmanship, fair play, and civility in athletics as well as in other aspects of our academic and social life.”
While Concepcion did not name the regent concerned, ABS-CBN News and the Philippine Daily Inquirer identified him as Spocky Farolan, a presidential appointee.
Farolan has already erased the controversial posts from his timeline but ABS-CBN shared one screenshot where Farolan wrote: “Too bad Ateneo won’t have complete players on Wednesday. Three injured. Just choose who those would be.”
In a comment, he added that UP’s fraternities could form a strike team to attack Ateneo’s players.
He also wrote as a comment: “My suggestion is, in a sign of solidarity, form a composite strike team of all UP frats. Just three players [should be attacked]. That’s fine. It could also be all UP Frats vs. all Ateneo frats on Wednesday. Old school fistfight. No weapons. No bodyguards. Good old barbaric stupid ignorant machismic (sic) hand-to-hand violence. In the middle [of the court]. Part of the half-time show. Is that ok?”
Yesterday, Farolan posted a statement on his Facebook account where he clarified that he was just being sarcastic in his post.
He wrote: “I posted something which might be construed as advocating violence and frat violence. To be clear, as I mentioned in a comment there, violence, especially frat-related ones are barbaric, machismo (sic), stupid and ignorant. There was sarcasm in that comment which may not have been immediately and easily perceived by some. Anyway, [I] deleted the post just in case some [people would] interpret it wrong (sic).”
While basketball is always a big deal in the Philippines, this year’s UAAP is especially heated because this is the first time UP landed in the finals in 21 years.
UP and Ateneo are considered two of the country’s top schools and both have main campuses in Quezon City’s Katipunan area.
