IT IS barely 10 months before we host the SEA Games starting late November and ending middle of December.
While we aren’t totally ready yet, venues-wise, it is fair to say that our leaders are working in feverish pitch to ensure success in the biennial meet.
I practically know all the men and women moving their butts out for the greatest sporting show in the region, among them Ricky Vargas and Butch Ramirez. Both are the twin jewels in the golden triangle behind the Games, with Alan Peter Cayetano completing the triad.
Vargas is president of the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) and Ramirez chairman of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC).
As top gun of the Games’ organizing committee, Cayetano is overall strategist as he holds the key that will either unlock the event’s success or plunge the country to ignominy.
I had watched Vargas work at close range as we were together in Seoul some years back to mend our shattered fences with the Fiba (World Basketball Federation).
He has depth.
He has poise.
He has wisdom.
No wonder he defeated Jose “Peping” Cojuangco Jr. Not just by using unlimited patience but also by employing a well thought-out strategy that even Peping’s fiercest allies found—in the end—too hard to resist.
Joining a high-powered PHL team in balmy Seoul that presented a paper for the restoration of basketball with Fiba, I was privileged to cover all the action in the sometimes heated board room battles. I saw first-hand how Vargas had expounded our position so well—leading to the enlightenment of then Fiba secretary-general Patrick Baumann (rest in peace).
In no time, we got Baumann’s nod and he helped in the creation of the Samahang Basketbol sa Pilipinas.
As our Olympic head now, Vargas is tasked to ensure a hitch-free SEA Games.
I’m sure Cayetano’s political savvy brought on by his shining stints as a senator and Foreign Affairs secretary should carry him well in his crucial job in unison with Vargas and Ramirez.
As the one controlling the purse strings, Ramirez’s role is as vital, too.
Godspeed, gentlemen.