Friday, January 19, 2007 Torrevillas defends ex-boss Jakosalem By Marian C. Baring Sun.Star Staff Reporter
A FORMER staffer of Cebu City Councilor Sylvan “Jack” Jakosalem came to his defense after his former boss was put “in a bad light” by a statement made by fellow councilor Raul “Yayoy” Alcoseba, who is also a colleague at the Cebu City Sports Commission.
Allan Torrevillas, former chief of staff of Jakosalem and now the executive director of the Greater Cebu Sports Organizing Committee (GCSOC), called the statements of Alcoseba unbecoming.
“It placed not only sir Jack (Jakosalem) but the CCSC in a bad light,” Torrevillas said.
Last week, Alcoseba retracted a statement made by Jakosalem that gold medalists in the 2005 Arafura Games will be given free airfare for this year’s bid and said that the CCSC “will not be spending a single centavo for it.”
Torrevillas said it made Jakosalem seem like someone who could not stand up for what he said and make CCSC look uncoordinated and gave confusion to the athletes.
“I have worked with Jakosalem for a long time and I know for a fact that when he makes a statement, he would do anything to make it happen. If he will, he could move mountains,” said Torrevillas, who also had served as the executive director of the CCSC.
Doubts
Torevillas noted that a few years back, when CCSC decided to send a delegation to Cleveland for the International Children’s Games for the first time, Jakosalem managed to come up with the needed P2 million for it.
“Karon na lang muhatag og doubts sa capabilities ni Jack after what he has proven before. He (Alcoseba) should have asked Jack first what his plans are before retract him (Jakosalem’s statement),” Torrevillas added.
Torrevillas quit as Jakosalem’s staffer when he decided to focus on the 2005 Southeast Asian Games hosting, of which he was an organizing committee member.
Jakosalem, for his part, was confident of his word since it was discussed during the weekly meeting of the CCSC.
“I said that we will try to get them free airfare as an incentive. That came out in the minutes of the meeting,” said Jakosalem. He added that there was just misunderstanding and miscommunication between him and Alcoseba and there is nothing to feel bad about it.
Recommendation
“We will be recommending it (free airfare) to the mayor and I am positive that he will agree to it,” Jakosalem added.
Both CCSC and GCSOC are working separately to help send athletes to the Arafura Games in Darwin, Australia come May.
Meanwhile, Torrevillas also defended GCSOC head Jonathan Guardo after Alcoseba said the GCSOC is only here to help Guardo in his campaign.
“Guardo has always been associated with sports. They (Guardo and sports) are almost synonymous. You can’t possibly doubt him now,” Torrevillas added.
Guardo, a congressional bet, used to head the CCSC and was responsible in bringing five events to Cebu during the 2005 Southeast Asian Games, to which he is the head of the organizing committee.
