Senator Pia Cayetano on Tuesday criticized the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) over the reported pay gap between referees in men’s and women’s basketball games.
Referees in the men’s division reportedly earn ₱3,000 per game, while their counterparts in the women’s division receive ₱2,000.
Cayetano described the practice as discriminatory, stressing that it violates the Magna Carta of Women, a law she authored.
“In its attempt to justify the lower pay for the referees of the women’s division, the UAAP labeled the move as a ‘tiered, merit-based system.’ But creating tiers is a circumvention of the law,” she said.
According to the senator, the Magna Carta of Women requires sports organizations to adopt affirmative action in their strategies and to use gender equality as a framework for policies and budgets.
Cayetano emphasized that referees perform the same duties whether they officiate men’s or women’s games. She warned that treating women’s games as less valuable demeans female athletes and reinforces stereotypes the law aims to eliminate.
“It discourages officiating in women’s basketball and undermines gender equality instead of advancing it,” she said.
The senator urged the UAAP and other sports bodies to review and correct their compensation policies immediately.
“Equal pay is not optional. It is the law,” she emphasized.
House Assistant Minority Leader and Gabriela party-list Rep. Sarah Elago echoed this perspective and threw her full support behind UAAP women’s basketball coaches demanding equal pay for referees officiating women’s games.
Elago also condemned the league’s new pay scale that gives game officials higher compensation for men’s matches.
“Let’s not shortchange women’s game—pay referees fairly,” Elago said. “Paying women’s games less reinforces the harmful message that women’s sports—and women themselves—are worth less.”
UAAP officials claimed the disparity reflects the “difficulty” of officiating men’s games due to their supposed faster pace. But coaches across the league have debunked this rationale, stressing that refereeing demands the same decision-making regardless of gender.
Elago linked the issue to the broader fight for a family living wage in the Philippines, where workers across sectors—especially women—continue to suffer from systemic underpayment.
The Gabriela Women’s Party called on the UAAP Board of Managing Directors to immediately reverse the discriminatory pay scale and for sports governing bodies to adopt fair compensation policies across all leagues and divisions.
