IT was apparent during the opening match between Gilas Pilipinas and the Dominican Republic on Aug. 25, 2023 that the “hugot” system plagues the highest levels of Philippine basketball.

Hugot is a colloquial term that is equivalent to the concept of “import(ed) player” in sports competitions.

Like millions of Filipino youths who grew up in the country, I spent most of my school vacation days participating in various summer basketball leagues at the community level. It was during that time that I encountered the concept of hugot.

As the summer leagues were held at the community level, the main eligibility requirements were age (in age group competitions) and residency. Certain teams wanted to improve their chances of bagging the prestigious championship at the end of the tournament (for bragging rights only, really) by bringing in the notorious hugot.

The hugot were suspected community outsiders whose residency eligibility was uncontested, usually for lack of documentary or other evidence. It was hard to contest the hugot’s residency eligibility because the requirements, in my experience, were quite lenient. Besides, how would it be established that a particular youthful individual was not a resident of the community? Thus, rumors swirled about and the suspects were subsequently called hugot.

Another problem was proving that the hugot is overaged in the age requirement. Often there was documentary evidence to establish the hugot’s age. However, people suspect that the documents were either fake or tampered with, but again there was usually no tangible proof.

I have already written a series of columns on the “win at all costs” Filipino mentality concerning sporting competitions, and that is the same explanation I have for the existence of the hugot phenomenon.

In other cases, however, the presence of the hugot is allowed by sporting rules. For instance, in school competitions, regulations merely require players to be bonafide students; their nationality or residency becomes irrelevant.

Nevertheless, there could be limits concerning the number of foreign student-athletes that can be included in the lineup. In other competitions that allow foreign hugot player/s, there are provisions concerning how many of them can play at the same time.

The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) was once embroiled in controversy concerning players who were brought in with purportedly Filipino lineage, but were either exposed to be “Fil Shams,” players who did not have a drop of Filipino blood, or did not have convincing documentation to establish their ancestry. Nevertheless, since its inception in 1975, the PBA has allowed a certain number of officially sanctioned hugot to play in certain parts of the season. Often, in two of the three conferences played during the typical PBA season, hugot players of a certain height limit are allowed to play subject to specific regulations, although there were certain conferences in the past where the height limit for the hugot players was waived.

Beyond the eligibility issues, my biggest concern with the hugot system is its undesirable impact on Philippine basketball. This was evident during the Gilas Pilipinas games of the FIBA 2023 World Cup tournament. Its effects have also been seen in the PBA games and other lower-level basketball tournaments in the country.

Under the hugot system, the (super)star recruit often joins the team at the very last minute and practically severs all connections with them once the tournament ends. Consequently — and this was evident in the presence of National Basketball Association (NBA) star Jordan Clarkson in the country’s World Cup games thus far — teams often utilize the best-suited strategy for the hugot: give them the ball and let them maximize their individual talents.

In a short tournament, practically all manner of team play disappears with the presence of the hugot. This is because the hugot has no time to master complex basketball plays with their teammates because of their circumstances. Some kind of basic team chemistry might develop should the hugot and their teammates play more and more games. However, in a short tournament such as the World Cup, the development of team chemistry with the hugot is a huge task.

Thus, what happens is the hugot will score a lot of points because the team will just give them the ball in every possession, almost letting them operate individually. This was evident in the way Clarkson was utilized in the game against the Dominican Republic. In that game as well, Clarkson had a lot of turnovers due to his lack of familiarity with his teammates.

The hugot will often be a defensive liability for the team primarily because they would be tired from carrying the offense and logging big minutes on the floor. We saw this magnified in the case of Clarkson, a career reserve player in the NBA who is not known for his defensive prowess.