WHILE games continue to thrill and excite — practically all teams (men’s division) this year are almost equally matched — seemingly buried amid all the hoopla is the talent fee issue of referees in the ongoing Season 88 of the UAAP basketball tournament.
Has it been “repaired?”
I mean, are all the league’s referees being compensated equally — finally?
Last I heard, not yet.
My sleuthing says referees working women’s games get only P2,000 per game as against the P3,000 for the men’s collegiate action and P2,500 for the men’s junior division.
Unfair? Uhm.
I was also told that referees’ fees this year in men’s division is higher than last year’s fees, while officials’ fees in women’s contest is P500 lower than the previous season.
Are you kidding me?
If true, isn’t that downright disparity of the first degree? Criminal?
This isn’t only anomalous but scandalous as well. It’s as crazy as seeing one crooked contractor in a flood control project getting jailed but not the receiver of kickbacks.
Tell me: Is there a difference between officiating a men’s game and a women’s game? And the juniors game, as well?
UAAP Commissioner Jai Reyes, in justifying the new rates, was heard saying: “Mas mabilis ang laro sa lalaki, so mas mahirap siyang pituhan (Men’s games are faster, and so they are harder to officiate).”
Can you believe that?
Sorry, Sir, but with all due respect, you are way out of line.
It’s like saying that because male boxers are harder punchers than female fighters, a boxing match between males is harder to officiate than a contest between females.
Manny Pacquiao would be justified if he wouldn’t agree to that. That is why he is the lone eight-division world boxing champion in the world.
In any basketball game, referees run, blow their whistles and stop action when necessary, whether it’s a men’s play, women’s contest or a juniors competition.
No one can say that a referee working a women’s game exerts less effort than an official manning a men’s game. That’s a truism as old as time.
The same energy, skill and decision-making are tools employed by all referees officiating all divisions of the UAAP — and in all leagues for that matter.
Is that hard to comprehend?