RUMOR: La Salle's Abi Marano and Mark Gil Alfafara of University of Santo Tomas should have won the MVP awards at the conclusion of the UAAP volleyball tournament and not shared it with somebody else.
FACTS: Even though two of his players shared the MVP award in the women’s volleyball tournament, La Salle coach Ramil De Jesus made an intriguing remark during an interview after Game Two when asked about his thoughts on Abi Marano and Ara Galang sharing the honor.
“Definitely, dapat isa lang (ang MVP),” said De Jesus. “May mali dito sa choices na ito.”
De Jesus didn't stop there. He said the team had been tracking the MVP race through the volleyball information system (VIS) being used by the league and obviously saw something amiss. “Luckily, sa amin pa rin napunta. Hindi nawala sa amin,” De Jesus added, without elaborating.
Following the lead unwittingly given by de Jesus, Spin.ph learned that there was indeed a big confusion in the tabulation, and eventually the proclamation, of the league's MVP winners.
A UAAP insider confirmed that Marano was supposed to be the sole winner of the MVP award in the women’s division and Mark Gil Alfafara of University of Santo Tomas in the men’s side. In fact, invitations were already sent to the two winners days before the awarding ceremonies.
But a simple clarification made by La Salle led to a re-examination of the results and, eventually, the decision to declare Galang a co-MVP with Marano in the women's division and Red Christensen of the Green Archers a co-winner of Alfafara in the men's side.
According to a high-ranking sports official of La Salle, the school sought the clarification because based on their tabulation, it was Galang, and not Marano, who should've won the MVP award.
As it turned out, the confusion was caused by the decision of the league organizers to change the system that determines the MVP winner.
Under the old format, corresponding points were given to the Top 10 players for each statistical category like attacks, blocks, and service aces. But that was changed to cover the Top 50 players in each category - a shift that dramatically altered the results of the tabulation for the individual awardees.
Marano was the hands-down MVP under the new rule, while Galang topped the tabulalation under the old format. It was the same in the men's division, with Alfafara winning the award under the new format and Christensen topping the tabulation under the old rule.
But there was one problem: the change in the MVP format was done without the approval of the UAAP board.
“Nag-clarify lang kami kasi bakit parang naiba ‘yung tracking nila sa tracking na ginagawa namin. And they said that they changed the basis. Our question was, was the system approved by the board?” said the La Salle sports official.
UAAP president Nilo Ocampo of National University admitted there was indeed a change in the tabulation for the MVP race, so as to conform with the rules of the FIVB, the world governing body of the sport.
“We have a private company that runs the statistics. Meron silang sinundan na adjustment from the FIVB so they followed it,” Ocampo said.
After the disparity was pointed out by La Salle, Ocampo said they decided to revert back to the old basis to avoid disagreement. “Para hindi na-divide, we decided on the old computation and lumabas na dalawa ang winners,” said Ocampo.
The La Salle official, however, disagreed. Based on their computation of the old basis, Galang won the award comfortably over Marano under the old format.
“Hindi naman kami umaangal, tinatanong lang namin because they would have defended it to the very end. In fact, we didn’t know the winners in the men’s because hindi namin ‘yun mino-monitor. We just wanted to clarify if it was approved by the board,” said the La Salle official.
The UAAP chief admitted the mistake, but said that it was just proper to make the correction and name two winners of the MVP plum. “Nakakahiya namang ibawi, so we had to correct it. Kasalanan namin as host and na-correct naman,” said Ocampo.
That explains why Marano and Galang ended up sharing the league's highest individual award.
On the other hand, there were grumblings on cyberspace from fans who felt that Ateneo's Alyssa Valdez and Dindin Santiago of National University deserved the award more than the La Salle pair.
But according to the league insider, either Marano or Galang would have won the award by a mile anyway, regardless of what format used in the tabultion.
“(Valdez and Santiago) were never contenders in the first place,” the insider said.
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