A good Christmas, historic opportunity for PH sports
HE recent decision of a Filipino RTC judge to nullify a patently fraudulent and rigged board election by the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) may be the gift to national sports that is essential for a renaissance of the sector in this country of more than 100 million people.
The POC elections in November last year were in every way an injustice to Filipino athletes and genuine sports leaders who advocated for a change in POC leadership as the single most important factor that could reshape the conduct and performance of our national sports in international competitions.
Through a crooked elections committee headed by Mr. Frank Elizalde, who was miraculously resurrected from retirement to supervise the voting, POC president Jose “Peping” Cojuangco, Jr. managed to control proceedings in such a manner that opposition candidates were disqualified on a technicality from running, and he ( Cojuangco) could be reelected unopposed to an unprecedented fourth term as POC president.
To this wretched and totally crooked electoral proceeding, Judge Maria Cadiz-Casaclang of Branch 155 of the Pasig Regional Trial Court has now given her emphatic “No.”
In a two-page decision handed down on December 1, Judge Casaclang ruled on the issue as follows:
1. The POC elections for the position of POC president and chairman conducted on Nov. 25, 2016 are “null and void.”
2. The POC Election Committee, which disqualified Messrs Ricky Vargas and Abraham Tolentino from running for the top POC posts, acted beyond the scope of its power and authority that was granted by the POC executive board.
The POC poll body, according to the decision, “violated its own election rules when it disqualified Mr. Vargas and Mr. Tolentino from its list of candidates for the 2016 elections for president and chairman.”
3. The court also ordered that new elections be held on Feb. 23, 2018 for the position of president and chairman, and that Vargas and Tolentino should be included as candidates.
In reaction to the court decision, Vargas, a longtime sports leader, declared: “Finally, we have obtained justice.” He is, in fact, president of the Alliance of Boxing Associations in the Philippines, and is
For his part, Mr. Cojuangco declined to comment on the decision, or say what he would do next.
He knows he is not “unopposed.” He is opposed by nearly ev
Other members of the POC mafia are more determined to fight. They said they will appeal the RTC decision for reconsideration, and will bring the issue to the Court of Appeals ( CA) if their appeal is rejected, and then take the issue to the Supreme Court if the CA turns them down. They figure that the POC term will be over by the time the issue is resolved. It is such irresponsible and medieval thinking that has kept the POC incapable of offering solutions to the rut and drift of national sports for many decades. This is why the country’s national sports associations ( NSAs) and national athletes are alienated from the POC.
The POC is a leader of Philippine sports by virtue only of a technicality: the country must work through it in order to take part in international competitions (SEAG, Asian Games, and Olympics). It is a pro-forma rule.
This can easily be remedied once the new POC leaders and POC board are elected. No authority on earth can force the Philippines to work forever with Mr. Cojuangco as POC president.
The Philippine sports community should look at the new elections on Feb. 23, 2018 as a historic opportunity not to be missed. They should say goodbye to Mr. Cojuangco once and for all.
If we interpret Judge Casaclang’s decision correctly, Frank Elizalde should not set foot anywhere near the elections on February 23. He should just have private coffee somewhere with Mr. Cojuangco and relive their happy times together.
Philippine sports is going elsewhere—to a better place—without them.