NU's Troy Rike: No one is gonna stop me from pursuing my dream

After admitting he was arrested and detained for "being an illegal alien," National University's Troy Rike said Saturday, "I love the Philippines. I came here, I wanna make the country proud and no one's gonna stop me from following on my dream."

NU Bulldog and Gilas cadet Troy in an interview on CNN Philippines said he was arrested last September 19 by personnel of the Bureau of Immigration for being an "illegal alien."

The arrest came after a game against the DLSU Green Archers in the Mall of Asia Arena. According to reports, he was served an arrest warrant for being "an illegal alien studying without visa."

He said he was detained in the Immigration office for 24 hours, but he was able to produce documents to prove his citizenship, including his passport, certificate of recognition as Filipino citizen, and birth certificate. He was released a day after.

Despite the setback, Rike said he would just focus on playing basketball.

"My entire life, I found joy and love in the game of basketball so when I'm out there, I just try to focus on that," he told reporters.

Rike, however, said his arrest was a 'dangerous precedent'.

"I believe they said the public was their answer (on who tipped BI agents). That's kind of a dangerous precedent if we could just report people and get them arrested."

NU's big man admitted that he was bothered after the incident, but grateful for the support of his teammates and the NU management. 

"Everyone's been very supportive —I can't thank enough my teammates, management, everyone was there for me. That means the world. There's a lot of good people here so I appreciate that," he added.

Right now, Rike said he will not go after anyone. "I just wanna play basketball. That's the most important thing." —Justin Kenneth Carandang/LBG, GMA News