UAAP board says UPIS cager exceeded four-year rule

MANILA, Philippines - The UAAP board yesterday stressed that it declared a player from University of the Philippines Integrated School as ineligible following “an elementary violation of a long-standing rule on eligibility.”

In a statement released yesterday, the UAAP board maintained that UPIS’ Joshua General  has consumed his four-year playing eligibility with UPIS and the league. Under “Other Requirements” of the Player’s Eligibility rule of the UAAP’s Rules and Regulations in its Articles of Incorporation and By Laws, “A [High School] athlete shall have a maximum of four playing years within five [High School] years reckoned from the academic year of elementary graduation.”

General graduated in elementary at 11 at the Naga Parochial School in Camarines Sur in 2008. He attended San Beda Taytay for his freshman year as a high schooler but dropped out in October of school year 2008-2009.

General enrolled the following school year at Lourdes School Mandaluyong not as a high school freshman but as a Grade Seven student and graduated a second time in elementary in 2010. He then enrolled at UPIS for his high school in 2010-2011 school year.

According to Season 76 secretary-treasurer Ma. Luisa Isip of Adamson University, it starts counting a player’s eligibility from his first graduation as an elementary student – in General’s case from 2008 at the Naga Parochial School.

The UAAP board has sought its members from UP – Chancellor Caesar Saloma and Prof. Ronualdo Dizer – to initially inquire into the General issue after his eligibility was questioned despite the fact that the season has already started, and based its decision on their report.