UP appeals ban on Bo

University of the Philippines is appealing the three-game suspension handed by the UAAP on coach Bo Perasol for his outburst in Sunday’s game against Ateneo.

Patricia Galang, legal counsel of the UP men’s basketball team who helped draft the appeal, said the punishment was “excessive, unwarranted and unprecedented.”

“As the video footage shows, Coach Bo uttered some harsh words but he did not at any point hit or make physical contact with referee Jaime Rivano,” Galang said in a statement. “At most, I think one could argue that Coach Bo stood in an aggressive manner – but he did nothing beyond that.”

Perasol was ejected midway the third quarter for getting two technical fouls, meriting him an automatic one-game ban. But UAAP basketball commissioner Jensen Ilagan said in a statement Tuesday that an additional two-game suspension will be given “for committing continuous flagrant acts of aggression toward the game official after being restrained repeatedly by the UP Fighting Maroons team members.”

Galang, however, argued that there is an “unclear factual basis for the additional two-game penalty imposed.”

“Coach Bo got a one-game suspension for his ejection; that is clear under tournament rules… So what’s the basis for the additional two games? The Commissioner says it is for ‘continuous flagrant acts of aggression’, a violation that does not exists as defined by tournament rules,” she said.

Perasol already apologized for his actions, but said the three-game ban is too much.