What will POC do next?

Remember, when POC volunteered to host the 2019 SEA Games, Digong was just a foul-mouthed city mayor while Peping had just cast his lot with Jejomar Binay, abandoning his nephew in Malacañang.

Ihad to pick my eyes up off the floor when I rolled it too much upon learning that the Philippines has graciously stepped in as 2019 Southeast Asian Games host when Brunei backed out.

I still remember the highs and lows of the 2005 hosting, when months before the SEAG the country had to deal with reports and rumors it was backing out owing to the situation in Manila. Funds were limited and the release of it came late, hence the fiasco that former Cebu City Sports Commissioner Jonathan Guardo found himself in, accused of pocketing P10 million when he failed to liquidate it. (The gist of the matter was the P10 million was released to build venues, but Cebu had existing venues, so it was used for operational purposes.)

Up to this day, Peping had P27 million in unliquidated funds, and one of my first thought when the Philippines volunteered to host the 2019 edition was what would happen to that issue? Would it be buried? Remember, when POC volunteered to host the 2019 SEA Games, Digong was just a foul-mouthed city mayor while Peping had just cast his lot with Jejomar Binay, abandoning his nephew in Malacañang.

Digong won, Peping reneged on a promise not to run in the POC elections, and suddenly you have previous outsiders running the PSC. Heck, Peping tried to play into Digong’s good side by saying the SEAG would be hosted by Davao. That didn’t work, obviously.

A few weeks ago, I read in the news that the POC was preparing for a Plan B for the SEAG; that it would work with an LGU directly for the hosting of the games (i.e, one LGU for tennis, one LGU for basketball..etc). A few days later, I learned why the POC was singing a different tune when Mon Fernandez said that in a meeting between the POC and PSC, the talks were stalled when the POC demanded full control of the funds.

See. That demand came almost in the same month when the POC proudly said that it is a private institution and whatever funds it gets shouldn’t be covered by government rules. Only a fool would agree to such demand from an organization that thinks it shouldn’t be subject to government laws even if it gets government funds.

So the PSC finally said it won’t support the SEAG hosting, giving the POC enough time whether it will seek private support or tell the SEAG Federation next month that nope, it can’t host the 2019 edition. Brunei did it in 2015, saying it couldn’t host 2019 because their government wasn’t willing to support it.

Let’s see what Peping and the POC will do next.