Cojuangco era coming to an end?

What will Jose “Peping” Cojuangco do now that his request for a TRO (Temporary Restraining Order) was denied by the Court of Appeals (CA)?

Defy the CA verdict or obey it?

Cojuangco sought the TRO when a lower court in Pasig ordered the new polls to elect the president and chairman of the POC on Feb. 23.

Because the ruling is immediately executory, Cojuangco’s main relief was a TRO from the CA to stop the polls just weeks from now.

But in a decision on Jan. 30 penned by Associate Justice Maria Filomena D. Singh of the Eleventh Division of the Appellate Court, and concurred in by division chairman Justice Ramon M. Bato Jr. and senior member Justice Edwin D. Sorongon, the CA said, “the court finds no ground for the issuance of a TRO.”

With this new development, it seems obvious now that Cojuangco has to order the elections for president and chairman, respectively, of the POC on Feb. 23.

In 2016, Cojuangco won unopposed as POC president when the POC’s Commission on Election disqualified boxing chief Ricky Vargas as Cojuangco’s opponent.

Also disqualified was Rep. Abraham Tolentino of the Integrated Cycling Federation of the Philippines as candidate for chairman.

The Comelec, headed then by Frank Elizalde, ruled that Vargas and Tolentino got ousted for being “inactive members of the General Assembly.”

In going to court, Vargas claimed that the Comelec had wrongly interpreted the “inactive member” clause when it said “active membership meant attending the General Membership meetings.”

Pasig Judge Ma. Gracia Cadiz-Casaclang ruled that:

One, the Comelec’s interpretation was wrong.

Two, the Comelec had no authority to interpret the POC by-laws.

And three, the Comelec was only supposed to organize and supervise the POC elections.

“The Jan. 30 ruling of the CA’s 11th Division effectively shot down efforts to restrain the conduct of elections on February 23,” said George SD Aquino of ACCRA LAW, lawyers for Vargas.

Is the Cojuangco era in sports coming to an end?

Or will he elevate his case to the International Olympic Committee, citing the court rulings as “government intervention” in sports?

If I know Cojuangco, he will not take things sitting down.

Is the Cojuangco era in sports coming to an end? Or will he elevate his case to the International Olympic Committee, citing the court rulings as “government intervention” in sports?