When Stubbornness Meets Contempt

Or, in layman's terms, when shit (pardon the French) hits the fan. 

What follows are statements from the UAAP and Sen. Pia Cayetano regarding the burning issue of the (ill-conceived) #NewUAAPRule.

Discern for yourselves. If you follow me on Twitter or follow this blog, then you know where I stand. 

Mikee Bartolome (foreground) and Sen. Pia Cayetano (background)
play major parts in the ongoing melodrama revolving around
the wretched #NewUAAPRule.
(image from Mike Abasolo)

The first is a PDF copy of the actual court order handed down by RTC Branch 226. It's the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) that suspends the UAAP's high-school-to-college residency rule (read: nonsense) and, more importantly, specifies that Mikee Bartolome should be allowed to compete THIS SEASON. 

The second is another PDF copy, but this time it is RTC Branch 226's DENIAL of the UAAP's "Very Urgent Motion for Partial Reconsideration" AND UST's "Urgent Motion for Reconsideration." This order/denial snuffs out the desperate moves of both the UAAP and UST and, therefore, upholds the TRO as well as Mikee's clearance to compete.

The Games That Play Us: Ain’t It Fun?

There’s this song that’s been ringing in my head these past few weeks. It’s one of the new songs from Paramore’s new self-titled album. It talks about how people are thrust into the real world (or any new situation) and forced to face the challenges of living independently or simply living a life where they have to look out for themselves.

Some standout lines from the song’s lyrics go this way (from AZLyrics.com):

“If it don't hurt now, then just wait, just wait a while.

You're not the big fish in the pond no more.

You are what they're feeding on.

So what are you gonna do when the world don't orbit around you?

Ain't it fun living in the real world?

Ain't it good being all alone?

Where you're from, you might be the one who's running things.

Well, you can ring anybody's bell to get what you want.

See it's easy to ignore trouble when you're living in a bubble.”

The song resonates with me, especially on the level of a high school teacher, since I have met (and continue to meet) a good number of students who could very well be on the receiving end of these lines. These are kids who, whether they do so willfully or unwittingly (which might be worse), go around feeling entitled, feeling as if the world owes them. These are kids who feel they are above the rules. These are those who feel they are at the center of the universe, and everyone has to adjust to them and not the other way around. Not all students are like this, of course. I daresay that most students eventually outgrow this “self-entitlement/self-centered” stage, but some do persist (even into adulthood I might add).

Eerily enough, it seems the song is also a good fit for the current issues hounding the Generation Me version of the UAAP – things like personnel suspensions, eligibility rules, and two highly-admired coaches calling it a day (Ricky Dandan & Leo Austria). Specifically, though, for the Ateneo fans out there, the lines, “You're not the big fish in the pond no more/ You are what they're feeding on,” should resonate even more.

Coach Sandy Arespacochaga piloted Ateneo to a big
comeback win over UE.
(image by Philip Sison/Fabilioh)

A Conversation Between the RTC and UAAP

In 99.99999% of the world, when a rule is REPLACED by a new rule, the old rule, quite literally, becomes part of history. Technically, it should have no currency anymore. Kaya nga OLD e -- PINALITAN na. Nabura na at pinalitan ng bago. 

In the UAAP, however, it doesn't work that way. They had an old residency rule, you see (1-year residency), which was already nonsensical by the way, for kids graduating from one UAAP high school and moving to another UAAP school for college. They REPLACED that rule with the 2-year residency rule, which has just recently been on the receiving end of a Temporary Restraining Order. Instead of the residency rule being snuffed out (albeit temporarily), though, its "older" version gets dug up in its place instead. 

What is logical in all of this, please?