The crowd wears a mix of blue, green and black during the Ateneo-La Salle matchup in the UAAP Season 79 men’s basketball tournament Sunday, Oct. 2, 2016, at Mall of Asia Arena. Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Mall of Asia Arena was mostly still a sea of green and blue for Sunday’s Ateneo-La Salle tiff.
With both schools inviting supporters to sport black shirts, not everyone conformed to their call in the bitter rivals’ first meeting in UAAP Season 79.
READ: Fans invited to wear black for Ateneo-La Salle tiff
The call drew mixed reactions, and that was evidenced by the differing attires from the people in the crowd.
Some wore black, but most chose to wear their schools’ colors.
The Blue Eagles wore black shirts during warmups.
Ateneo president Fr. Jett Villarin, SJ and La Salle vice chancellor Bro. Michael Broughton, FSC issued a memorandum on Friday as both schools encouraged their supporters to wear black in the game “to express solidarity with the victims of human rights violations and with all others struggling to uphold human rights in the country.”
The move is also a statement of both schools “in opposition to the possible Marcos burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, and the growing number of extrajudicial killings/summary executions in the country.”
Presidential Communications Operations Office Asec. Mon Cualoping, an Ateneo alumnus, attended the game.
This wasn’t the first time both Ateneo and La Salle supporters wore the same colors.
Back in 2009, both schools urged fans to wear yellow to commemorate the death of former president Cory Aquino when they met at Araneta Coliseum.