SO FAR, 15 people are running or have been nominated for the Central Visayas Regional Football Association election this Saturday, March 2 at the Cebu City Sports Center.
I expect that number to balloon this Saturday as I think others will be nominated or as a few coaches would say, others would “nominate myself.”
The 15 that have been nominated so far are Josephril Partosa, an architect, lawyer Ted Piasidad, doctors Alvin Roxas, Joseph Poblacion and Glen Labajo. The rest are Father Adriano Ocariza of the University of San Carlos, Jinggoy Roa, Antonio Trebol, Bruce Zabala, Tanya Chica, Guy Ceniza, Archie Reyes and Chad Songalia and holdovers Nimrod Quiñones and Rodney Orale.
I know most of them, while some I’ve heard by name only. And before anyone complains that most of them have sons or daughters playing the game and thus have vested interest, let me cut that short. Parents get involved in football--or any sport for that matter--because of their kids.
Roa and Trebol represent the coaches. Chica--a former football correspondent--is the lone female candidate, so far. Ceniza is with Don Bosco and also helped organize the Mayor’s Cup a few years ago, while Doc Roxas is from Paref-Springdale and is the father of Ethan, one of the most promising footballers in this side of the country.
Reyes, of course, is a long-time referee who is now with the Department of Education, while Partosa is with Architects United and also sponsored a team of under-privileged players in the past. Songalia, who is also with Don Bosco, can represent the tournament organizers as he has been with the Thirsty Cup since it started.
I think any of them deserves to be on the board; they’re professionals and won’t go the route of the Cagayan officers, who had their FA expelled from the Philippine Football Federation because in their haste to get their posts, they failed to follow the guidelines.
This Saturday, the football community will choose the board and the board, in turn, will select the new president. I think this early, the front-runner would be Orale, who has been with the previous board and was put in charge of the referees, which isn’t a small feat. He was also instrumental in the transformation of the Cebu City Sports Center pitch in time for the Global Cebu home games in 2017.
He’d be the top on my list this Saturday.