After a long-drawn battle, Ateneo guard Hubert Cani has finally been given the green signal to play this season by the UAAP.
The development came after a meeting between the UAAP Board members in light of the passage into law by Republic Act 10676 that was signed by President Benigno Aquino III and championed by Senator Pia Cayetano.
The law essentially scraps UAAP’s two-year residency rule for high school student-athletes transferring to a different school for college and leaves Cani clear to play for the Blue Eagles this season after playing for the National University Bullpups in 2014.
He is set to join a loaded Ateneo backcourt bannered by reigning league MVP Kiefer Ravena and Cebuano standout Jerie Marlon Pingoy, whose transfer from Far Eastern University to Ateneo back in 2013 triggered the league to create the said “Pingoy Rule,” which imposed a two-year residency for high school student-athletes transferring from one UAAP member school to another.
Cayetano, the outspoken politician and sportswoman who took up the fight to free student-athletes from commercialism, said that the latest UAAP ruling was a “victory for all.”