CHICAGO - Was Jonel Policarpio eligible to play for Mapua when the Red Robins won the NCAA's Season 94 juniors title?
If allegations of lack of residency and falsification of documents are true, should Mapua vacate the championship it won over CSB-La Salle Greenhills?
Sadly, it looks like we will never know.
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Per multiple sources, the NCAA's Management Committee (MANCOM) has decided not to resolve the issue.
The reason?
"The grace period has expired," a source within the NCAA told SPIN.ph.
I am now inclined to believe that this panel of esteemed people in the MANCOM have an affinity for light colors because this travesty seems like a whitewash to me.
The latest allegation pokes a hole on Policarpio's claim that he finished Grade 10 at Kid'Z Study Hall and Learning Center, an outfit that "ceased operations during the 2017-18 school year."
WHY IS THIS NOT BEING LOOKED AT?
Okay, let's assume that a time period to file a complaint and subsequently investigate it has expired.
It doesn't matter. Cheating is a mortal sin and there should be no time frame that caps a limit as to when the truth and its consequences can emerge.
A thorough investigation regarding this matter would be beneficial in so many ways: It can clear Policarpio's name, validate Mapua's championship, and placate the feelings of Season 94 runner-up finishers CSB.
I am mystified by ManCom's inaction.
If Policarpio, and Mapua by extension, had indeed cheated, their 2018 title must be taken away by virtue of the "fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine."
In layman's terms, anything attained through illicit means must be forfeited.
My SPIN.ph colleague and podcast partner Snow Badua said on our "No Cooking Show" last Monday that he was told the NCAA will not lift a finger on this controversy even if we rail at it relentlessly.
I CAN SEE WHY.
If Policarpio is proven to have been ineligible, it exposes the NCAA as a weakling remiss in its duties to properly vet all the participating players.
No organization wants to publicly declare a mea culpa, which in this case means potentially admitting that the good folks at the NCAA blew off its own big toe with a shotgun.
But the collective pride of the members of the ManCom must genuflect to the pursuit of fairness.
Scandals can either stain or smear a league. But with one broad stroke of laziness and indifference, the case of Mapua and Policarpio, assuming the allegations are truthful, can inflict both.
No league wants blood in its hands.
Maybe the NCAA just doesn't care.
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