WHEN the Regional Trial Court (RTC) ruled in favor of Ricky Vargas last night, I had my suspicions that the camp of incumbent Philippine Olympic Committee president Peping Cojuangco would ignore the ruling and won’t hold any elections.
So far, that suspicion is coming true as the grand old man has resorted to scare tactics, threatening that we’d be expelled from the IOC. (Bring it on, who’s afraid of being expelled from the IOC?) Lately, his camp has resorted to some childish bullying if we are to believe what Ed Picson of Abap said.
During the POC general assembly, Picson, the general secretary of Abap, which is headed by Ricky Vargas, asked what the POC was doing to comply with the RTC order to hold elections.
In Picson own words, “Mr. Cojuangco said he didn’t want to talk about it, slammed the table and adjourned the meeting. He then instructed the tech to turn off the microphone, while I was speaking. Peping-style democracy!”
That’s no democracy, that’s demo-crazy!
Peping has been saying that we’d be kicked from the IOC due to government interference. Oh, please! If that’s what’s needed to kick him out then let’s all take a beeline to the IOC and cry how our government is interfering with the POC so we’d get kicked out.
That threat is ironic coming from Peping, the guy who used his government connections to get Richie Garcia the PSC post in 2010. It is “connection” when it favors him and “government interference” when it doesn’t.
The RTC order is for the POC to hold elections on Feb. 23, something that I think won’t happen given Peping’s wish to stay in power. I think the camp of Ricky Vargas will follow the law, much to their disadvantage, but I think it’s time for the rest of the NSA presidents to let their voices be heard.
There are no neutral sides here. You are either pro-Peping or not. You either kick him out or you don’t. You can’t play a wait-and-see attitude to see which side the tide will favor. It’s time to act. Philippine sports is in such dire straits because the NSAs act like an old boys club. Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. That has led to such anomalies that are being uncovered in Karatedo, where athletes are used as cash cows. Unless, of course, these NSA presidents are afraid to act because they also have karatedo-like messes under their table?