January 29, 2023
DR. FIDEL R. NEMENZO Chancellor University of the Philippines - Diliman Re: Request for Nowhere To Go But UP Foundation, Inc. (NTGBUP) to be Official Team Management of the UP Women’s Volleyball Team Chancellor Nemenzo: Good day! As the UAAP Season 85 is fast approaching, we, the members of the UP Women's Volleyball Team (UPWVT) have been working extremely hard to represent our university and hopefully get back to the Final Four. However, since UAAP Season 84, we have been bothered by numerous issues surrounding the management of our team. This puts a lot of uncertainties with our campaign this season due to lack of funds and sense of urgency from the current management. In line with this, we are requesting your good office to reinstate and allow the Nowhere To Go But UP Foundation, Inc. (NTGBUP) to take charge of the overall management of the UP Women's Volleyball Team. We are confident that we will be in good hands as we have already experienced how NTGBUP properly managed, took care and provided for us in the past seasons. We never had to worry about our basic needs including food, dorm, allowances, flight tickets, training schedule, court, and sports equipment. We were even able to do team-building activities and training camps in Thailand (for Season 81) and Japan (for Season 82). Moreover, we would like to request a dialogue with NTGBUP, especially now that we need your full support for our upcoming season. Since January 2022, we have been dissatisfied with how we are being managed and treated, most especially how our Team Manager, Angela Villamil, has been ignoring basic needs, neglecting injuries, and failing to communicate to the team the status of our benefits as student-athletes. The following is a summary of our concerns - all of these were raised to both the Varsity Sports Program (VSP) and Team Manager Angela Villamil, as well as the Office of Student Affairs, but have not been actioned and they have been resorting to band-aid solutions rather than sustainable actions that can support the team and help it uphold University of the Philippines’ tradition of honor and excellence.