House Assistant Minority Leader and Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Sarah Elago called on the country’s biggest collegiate league to rescind its revised pay scale for referees.
Throwing her full support behind University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) women’s basketball coaches demanding equal pay for referees officiating women’s games, Elago condemned the league’s new pay scale that gives game officials higher compensation for men’s matches.
Under the revised rates, referees earn ₱3,000 for men’s games, ₱2,500 for boys’ matches, and only ₱2,000 for women’s and girls’ games.
Elago said the new pay scale is a stark departure from previous years when all divisions were paid equally at ₱2,500 per game.
“Let’s not shortchange women’s games. Pay referees fairly. Paying women’s games less reinforces the harmful message that women’s sports—and women themselves—are worth less,” Elago said.
The UAAP reportedly claimed the disparity reflects the added “difficulty” of officiating men’s games due to their faster pace.
But coaches across the league have debunked this rationale, stressing that refereeing demands the same decision-making regardless of gender.
Even players, led by University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigresses team captain Kent Pastrana, have called on the league to play fair.
““If they want a high salary (for referees), then they shouldn’t decrease the women’s [pay], because we also worked hard to reach the intensity that the men’s [teams] have,” Pastrana told UST student publication The Flame.
Online sports magazine Spin.Ph pointed out the league’s pay scheme runs counter to FIBA (Fédération Internationale de Basketball) rules which allow equal pay for competitions on the same level.
“In the Olympics, for instance, referees for the men’s and women’s tournaments get the same pay and there is no gap whether an official works the men’s or women’s game,” Spin.Ph’s fact-checking article said.
Elago said the UAAP referees’ pay discrepancy perpetuates systemic underpayment of women workers and professionals in the country.
The Gabriela Women’s Party Representative called on league directors to adopt fair compensation policies across all its events. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
