The harsh reality

I couldn’t believe Far Eastern University (FEU) president Dr. Edilberto de Jesus’s reaction to my Oct. 19 column which sought to expose the harsh reality of scalping by trying to estimate the potential black market take in the recent La Salle-Ateneo game for the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) men’s seniors basketball title.

Instead of Dr. de Jesus taking the cudgels for the prejudiced fan who had to shell out as much as P3,000 for a P200 patron ticket, he castigated me for "shoddy research" and "stupid assumptions." Then, frothing in the mouth, Dr. de Jesus said the column "brings no credit to either Henson or La Salle."

Sadly, Dr. de Jesus missed the point.

If only Dr. de Jesus stuck to what I attempted to raise in my column – the need for the UAAP host school to carefully account for the disposition of tickets in order to avoid the incidence of scalping, he probably would’ve been less emotional. As it was, Dr. de Jesus – whom I respect highly (he was my professor at the Asian Institute of Management) – chose to single me out for my shortcomings. Ouch.

If Dr. de Jesus read my column carefully and without prejudice, he would’ve seen it as a call to protect the paying public. But judging from his reaction or overreaction (in the "Feedback" section of yesterday’s issue), Dr. de Jesus saw in it as something sinister – an attack on the institution he heads.

But I can understand how such an overreaction could’ve come about. The just concluded UAAP season, after all, was so emotional and turbulent. Even within the UAAP Board, there were questions of integrity and charges of dishonesty.

For the record, let me assure Dr. de Jesus (whom I know to be an intelligent basketball fan) that I never accused FEU of any wrong-doing. I admit I did some speculating – there is no way to determine the extent of scalping because of the nature of the trade. I never assumed that FEU sold its entire share of the tickets to scalpers – what I tried to do was figure out the potential black market take, given some reasonable assumptions.

As regards Dr. de Jesus’ assurance that no FEU "insider" sold patron tickets for P1,300 each, that’s a relief. But I stand by my source who confided that a "known" scalper bought 20 patron tickets from an FEU "insider." Isn’t it possible that some hanky-panky could’ve happened at the rank-and-file level without the knowledge of top school officials? Surely, not all the corruption in government is known by the President. Again, I’m not accusing FEU of any wrong-doing. All I’m suggesting is because scalpers raked it in for the championship game, some kind of investigation must be done to prevent a recurrence. And the investigation must start from the host school which controlled the distribution of 80 percent of the tickets.

Overreaction is a dangerous thing because it clouds one’s logical thought processes.

I have too much respect of Dr. de Jesus and FEU as an institution (my mother studied there) to imagine that the school deliberately manipulated the distribution of tickets to allow for scalpers to make a killing. But the fact is scalpers did make a killing in the La Salle-Ateneo championship game – nobody can deny that.

My hope is all this talk will lead to stricter controls in handling the distribution of tickets for next year. And what about the suggestions of doing away with the host school tradition and appointing an independent UAAP Commissioner? When the emotions finally die down, perhaps the UAAP Board can look ahead instead of carping on the past.

Postscript. J C. Summer of jcsummers2000 @yahoo.com wrote: "(The) UAAP should not be tainted with politics. My view is not to limit Fil-Ams in the league because it adds competitiveness. So Filipinos brought up in the Philippines will invest in learning more to match the Fil-Ams. Selection should be based on a player’s ability to compete. Limiting Fil-Ams would only mean discriminating (against) them" … Mannix Mendoza of J. Eustaquio St., Barangay Progreso, San Juan, sent in a scathing e-mail: "You cast doubt on the integrity of FEU for… the paltry amount of P2.16 million. Your computations, if you must know, are based on conjecture alone. Your insinuations are based on your very fertile and malicious mind. Next time, maybe you can show some objectivity by writing about La Salle’s recruitment policies. Maybe, you can look into the alleged practice of La Salle of giving monetary perks such as cars and allowances to prized recruits. Maybe, you can use your fertile imagination to good use and investigate La Salle’s alleged practice of bending and circumventing eligibility rules. Maybe you can be a bit more perceptive and tell the whole world if the likes of Sharma, Sta. Maria, Ritualo, Cabatu, and Cardona are symbols of what a La Sallian should be" … Jojo Marasigan of jojom216 @yahoo.com said: "In the UAAP, it seems Fil-Ams are not welcome and are talked about as being professionals, players for hire and treated with some amount of disdain and contempt. Should a school be faulted for having access to topnotch faculty and funds for maintaining and creating an environment for better teaching and research facilities? Nowadays, people believe in a global village, a borderless and seamless world."