The De La Salle PEPTEST scandal revisited

A ‘loveless’ loveteam that clicks – and how!

The one-year suspension of De La Salle University from competitions of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines due to ineligibility of two members of the senior basketball team in the 2002 through 2005 seasons should have put the matter to rest, right? Wrong.

Recently I got a text message from a source I can’t disclose, urging that I carefully read the report of the UAAP Fact Finding Committee issued back in April 17, 2006. Apparently there are those who still insist that De La Salle got off too lightly, and that there was a massive cover-up involving high officials of the University.

A couple of weeks ago, too, a Jesuit priest, Fr. Alberto Alejo, described as a "leader of any anti-corruption movement," in reaction to the cheating in the recent nursing board exams, urged private and public schools to realign their values-formation programs.

Fr. Alejo said schools should develop a culture of profound respect for words, review their sports and alumni programs, reassess the goals of oratorical contests and debates and adopt a strict policy against cheating.

In regard to sports programs, he charged that recruitment programs for athletes in schools give too much importance to winning. Sports programs, he urged, should teach that the real essence of sports is how athletes play the game.

While I do have a bone to pick with Fr. Alejo for finding a connection between good school debaters and orators, on the one hand, and, on the other, "grandstanders in Congress" who are rewarded for being "good in declamation and oratorical contests," I do agree with him that in their desire to win at all costs, some of our educational institutions may be sending wrong messages to our youth.

Fr. Alejo may not have been referring to the DLSU problem on ineligible basketball players, but on second thought, maybe he was. At any rate, after consulting with some friends from De La Salle, I decided to take my mysterious texter’s advice and read the UAAP Report a lot more carefully.

I was able to get a copy of that Report from a source which must remain anonymous, since copies thereof are apparently rarer than the original Gutenberg Bible. Let’s just say a copy "appeared" on my desk. Hey, if guys like Toting, Mike and others can claim the same source for their "exclusive" copies of the Garci tapes, including the alleged "mother of all tapes," so can I. However, my copy, I can assure you, is totally and indubitably authentic.

This analysis will lift certain excerpts from the Report, eschewing too much interpretation. Let me simply express some wonderment as to why the subjects discussed therein have not been further investigated and resolved by the UAAP Board of Trustees.

Late last year, it will be recalled, a controversy erupted over a report that two players of the De La Salle University basketball team, champions of 2004-2005 season and eventual second-placers of the 2005-2006 season, were ineligible for admission into the University and disqualified by UAAP rules from membership in the team.

Their ineligibility, as certified by the Department of Education, was due to having submitted a fake or fabricated Philippine Educational Placement Test Certificate of Rating (PEPTEST Certificate) evidencing their qualification for admission to college. The two players were identified as Mark Lester Benitez and Timoteo Gatchalian III.

How was it possible for the players to dupe the entire DLSU administration into believing that the PEPTEST certificates were genuine? Why did it take top officials of DLSU so long to discover the fraud and, worse, report it to the UAAP? Were sports and other officials of the university involved in the fraud itself, and then a massive cover-up of the scope and extent of the responsibility?

Ostensibly, all these questions are answered by the UAAP Fact Finding Report. They are not. Ostensibly, the guilty officials have been identified. Well, not really. Ostensibly, the proper sanctions have been meted out. That’s debatable, even within the DLSU community. Ostensibly, the measures have been put in place to make sure this sort of thing doesn’t happen again. Here, the answer must be clearly not.

The issue must be of concern, not only to member-schools of the UAAP. And I am fully conscious of fierce school loyalties, and how difficult it is for alumni of one school to comment on the recruitment practices of another. Charges of "let him who is without sin cast the first stone" can fly fast and loose.

Nevertheless, I’ll take the chance, taking comfort in the realization that there are those who, like Fr. Alejo, are disturbed that a lust for winning at all costs flies in the face of all the values and virtues that schools like De La Salle stand for. In this, students and alumni/alumnae from whatever school, be it affiliated with the UAAP, NCAA or other league, must be together.

I start with this excerpt from p. 46 of the UAAP Report:

"He (Mark Benitez) stated that Bro. Casingal (Bro. Roberto ‘Bro. Bobby’ Casingal, FSC, DLSU Director for Sports Development) went to their house and he was made to write:

"Atty. Villa: When did he go to your house?

"Mr. Mark Benitez: Nakalimutan ko na rin po eh. Parang pinasulat niya ko na kung ano yung mga ilalabas ko about kung...hindi na magbabanggit about kay (UE Asst. Coach) Jun Tiongco at kay (UE Coach) Derek Pumaren kasi daw po matataas daw yun...mahirap kalabanin." (I’ve forgotten. Seems he made me write about what I would disclose...no more mention about Jun Tiongco or Derek Pumaren because they’re high up there...hard to fight.)

‘Atty. Villa: Who said that?

‘Mr. Mark Benitez: Si Bro. Bobby po. (Mark Benitez, TSN, p. 24)"

A UE Asst. Coach and the UE Coach himself? But isn’t the De La Salle Coach Franz Pumaren? And Bro. Bobby telling Benitez what not to say? It actually gets more complicated, next time.