Tigers get reprieve extension

UNIVERSITY of Santo Tomas (UST) will continue to enjoy some sort of reprieve when school authorities submit on Tuesday the result of their internal investigation over its men’s basketball team’s alleged breach of protocols in Sorsogon.

“No decision tomorrow [Tuesday] as UST will just be submitting results of its internal investigations,” Games and Amusements Board Chairman Abraham Kahlil Mitra said on Monday.

The GAB, Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) and Department of Health (DOH)—AS well as the Commission on Higher Education and the University Athletic Association of the Philippines—are investigating UST Head Coach Aldin Ayo and the Growling Tigers who allegedly held an unauthorized training in Sorsogon City with strict protocols in sports still enforced.

Ayo has been tight lipped and referred to UST’S investigation as his platform to air his side. But at least two Tigers—cj Cansino and Brent Paraiso—went to social media to hint that indeed the team had a clandestine training in Ayo’s native Sorsogon City.

The GAB-PSC-DOH joint committee has been tasked by the Inter-agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases to manage health protocols concerning sports and physical activities during the Covid-19 pandemic.

After scrutinizing UST’S report, the joint committee will make its recommendation to the IATF although the body has earlier declared a sanction—if UST is proven guilty—by the team’s mother league, the UAAP, would suffice to a punishment.

The UAAP is said to be looking at a penalty similar to the season-long and encompassing suspension that was slapped De La Salle for fielding two ineligible players in men’s

basketball.

The CHED, according to its Chairman Prospero de Vera III, said that the commission would also sanction UST “if the school had full knowledge of the [trip].”

“We should wait for their investigation. We should know who authorized it,” de Vera said.