THE controversy over the eligibility of a University of the Philippines Integrated School basketball player has reached the courts on Friday when a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) was issued on the UAAP's decision to declare Jozhua General ineligible to play for the Junior Maroons this season.
UAAP secretary treasurer Malou Isip confirmed that the Quezon City Regional Trial Court has issued a TRO in relation to the UAAP's decision to ban General this season and forfeit UPIS' lone win - a move decried as a "power-tripping" decision by Junior Maroons coach Allan Gregorio.
(For full story, see Gregorio cries foul as lone UPIS victory forfeited after player ruled ineligible)
Isip declined to reveal other details of the TRO, saying the document is already with the league’s legal counsel. But sources that the duration of the TRO is 20 days and that it was General’s parents who sought the court injunction.
The court’s decision should have a lot of ramifications on the league, beginning with the possibility that General may suit up for UPIS in Saturday’s match against University of Santo Tomas at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
Courts have not interfered in league matters in recent memory. However, in the NCAA, a TRO was obtained by San Beda in 2007 when the league policy board suspended Red Lion Yousif Aljamal after he joined the PBA draft without the permission from the league.
The UAAP board declared General ineligible after finding out that he had already exhausted the five-year window for high school players starting from the year of their grade-school graduation.
The league ruled that General's eligibility years started when he graduated from Grade Six in a Naga school in 2008 while UPIS contend that General’s 2010 Grade Seven graduation from Lourdes High School in Mandaluyong should be used as the starting point of his eligibility.
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