NCAA student-athletes will soon be required to get their shots of the COVID -19 vaccine before seeing action in the league.
Peter Cayco, a member of the league's management committee, said they are now in talks with the NCAA legal team in finalizing all the details of the rule that will mandate all participants to be inoculated once face-to-face events are allowed.
"Actually we're discussing it right now and we're geared towards including the vaccination in the eligibility requirements of the athletes," said Cayco in an interview on Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) forum on Tuesday.
The NCAA Season 96 is penciled to open on June 13 to be followed by the official virtual events of chess and poomsae on June 14, all of which will be aired on GMA Network.
And although the season has been all ironed out, NCAA management committee chairman Fr. Vic Calvo of host Letran still thinks that vaccines will get the league through to the next season or better, the staging of skills-based events for volleyball and basketball this season.
That's why the NCAA has been carefully studying the idea of requiring all athletes to get jabbed before allowing them to compete in the country's oldest collegiate fixture.
"Although, of course, we recognize the rights of the students to choose whether they'll get vaccinated or not, but we also have to recognize the rights of other students who want to get vaccinated," said Cayco of Arellano University.
In a previous report, the GMA Network, which will be NCAA's broadcast partner until Season 101, has vowed to provide the league with the vaccine that will be covering student-athletes and officials.
Calvo said they are also ramping up their vaccine information campaign in order to further educate the student-athletes on the importance of the COVID-19 jabs.
—MGP, GMA News
