Mendoza: Vargas is no Superman

WHAT have we got here?

First, Ricky Vargas, saying he was fed up with the non-cooperation of many members of the executive board, fired major officials of the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC).

Second, he replaced the chiefs of mission of the SEA Games in November-December in Manila and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

And third—and this was his most stunning move while perched at the POC—he resigned, citing as reasons work pressure outside the Olympic movement and his family obligations.

Vargas had fired blanks in the end. Someone close to Vargas told me: “He has become global as his non-POC work requires him now to travel regularly to Hong Kong.”

Vargas is one of the most trusted lieutenants of MVP (Manny V. Pangilinan), whose Metro Pacific conglomerate controls major corporations not only in the Philippines but outside our country as well.

Before his Hong Kong posting, Vargas was PLDT chieftain and Maynilad top gun almost in simultaneous capacities; he is also the incumbent president of the nation’s boxing association.

OK, you want some more?

Vargas is also the reigning chairman of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), widely acknowledged as the country’s No. 1 sporting event.

I’ve been covering sports for decades and, humbly, I know the rigors inherent in the POC presidency.

For one, it binds the president to overseeing operations of more than 40 national sports associations. That is no part-time job.

For another, the POC president is like a surgeon—the President of the Philippines, if you will—who is duty-bound to work seven days a week and virtually 24 hours a day. A full-time job, no less.

Vargas should thank God for not turning into a zombie, if not a total nervous wreck.

Thus, the only way out of the hell he had dug himself in was to bolt the POC.

Let’s give him his peace now. He tried his best, but he was, in the end, not Superman.

Indeed, all sayings are practically true. The stubborn, if not the overly ambitious, learn their lessons the hard way.

Definitely, Vargas is no exception.

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