Varsity teams return to practice pending release of guidelines

The national government has given varsity athletes the go signal to resume their training sessions, pending a new set of guidelines which will be drafted by a technical working group composed of the framers of the joint administrative order (JAO), the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) and members of select collegiate leagues.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque on Monday made the announcement pursuant to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases’ (IATF) Resolution No. 68 just a few minutes before a separate virtual presser delving into the details of such new measures.

“[The guidelines] will be anchored on pertinent provisions of the [JAO] enhanced by existing practices of professional leagues that have started training, particularly with what they’ve done with testing and contact-tracing,” CHEd Chair Prospero de Vera III said.

No definite timeline was set, but the CHEd chair noted that crafting such guidelines would not take more than three weeks.

The development comes in the wake of a massive probe into the alleged breach of quarantine protocols by the University of Santo Tomas and National University, both of whom were served show-cause orders, according to De Vera.

“Due process requires that they are made to respond … that’s why there is a show-cause order on the part of the commission and that’s why we’re submitting the results of our fact-finding to the [Department of Justice and the Department of the Interior and Local Government] so they can look into the alleged violations in the context of the IATF’s rules.”