Members of the UP Fighting Maroons men’s basketball team drew flak over the weekend after one of them jokingly hurt an employee at a carnival ride.
CJ Cansino, UP’s Men Basketball Team (UPMBT) captain, uploaded a video showing the players’ trip to Subic, Zambales on his YouTube channel on December 18.
The video showed the basketball team of the country’s premier university visiting the UP-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) to conduct a gift-giving ceremony for the children in line with the Christmas season.
The next parts of the clip featured their Subic trip, including riding a horror train at the province’s Festival Carnival.
During the ride, however, one of the members was seen yanking off the mask of a worker who was assigned to scare the guests. The man failed to pull it off because of the train’s speed.
Several viewers quickly noticed this part of the video. They slammed the player, whom they identified as Francis Lopez, for perceived bullying of the worker.
“Recently, the UP Maroons went to Subic for some gift giving and then to Fiesta Carnival. Great!!! Yes, they were having fun but there was no need to hurt an employee assigned to the horror train. What a classy act,” an X user commented with an angry emoji.
“What Francis did in this video is really not acceptable and very disrespectful to Kuya, who was just doing his job. I don’t support this kind of action. I know people will blame this incident on the whole team, even those who were innocent. So, I’m calling out Francis Lopez,” another X user reacted.
“To think all of them laughed when Lopez did it to kuya na nagtatrabaho lang,” a YouTube user said.
Other Filipinos, meanwhile, called on the UP community to speak up about it.
“True behh nasaan na yung mga may mga pa-thesis woke threads na may kalakip na social issues?” an X user asked.
“If this were students of Ateneo/La Salle, wokelandia Twitter would be hosting another essay writing contest and we’d never hear the end of it,” another X user wrote.
Neither Cansino nor Lopez has responded to the criticisms against them.
UP Fighting Maroons, meanwhile, lost to the De La Salle University Green Archers in the third game of the UAAP Finals last December 6.
DLSU was hailed this season’s champions with a score of 73-69 in the concluding bout held at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.
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