Athletics and boxing oppose anti-POC rally

High-profile sports athletics and boxing are not inclined to send their athletes out to support a rally against the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) being initiated by Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) commissioner Mon Fernandez on Sept. 21.

Philip Ella Juico, president of the Philippine Track and Field Association, doubts whether the proposed rally will succeed in changing the landscape of Philippine sports.

“From the frying pan into the fire,” said Juico on Wednesday in Malacañang. “We are not joining that.”

The Association of Boxing Alliances of the Philippines (Abap), like the Patafa, believes the rally aimed at ousting long-serving POC president Jose ‘Peping’ Cojuangco doesn’t guarantee that a change of leadership in the POC would result in something positive.

“If you succeed (in ousting him), then what?” asked Abap executive director Ed Picson.

Cojuangco, 82, has been presiding over the POC since 2004.

Through the years, Cojaungco has survived efforts to unseat him in elections although the longtime Tarlac lawmaker ran unopposed the last time in 2016. In 2008, he defeated the late Art Macapagal and in 2012, also was unopposed.

Fernandez, one of Cojuangco’s staunchest critics, has been using social media to rally behind his call to oust Cojuangco since assuming his post last year as an appointee of President Rodrigo Duterte.

Fernandez claims that the POC was the recipient of many a financial grant from the previous PSC administration headed by Ritchie Garcia, a close ally of Cojuangco.

Likewise, Fernandez insists sports that are identified with Cojuangco get special treatment from the PSC.