Knocked out before the fight

POC President Peping Cojuangco. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

By all accounts, Jose “Peping” Cojuangco Jr., will stay at the helm of the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) in the next four years, or until after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Unchallenged this time, he will stand for election as president for an unprecedented fourth term.

“What’s wrong with that?” the 82-year-old Cojuangco, said before a group of reporters right after a session of the POC general assembly (GA) last month.

With three terms under his belt, the former Tarlac congressman is already the longest-serving head of the POC. Under his watch, but not entirely because of it, the Philippines won its first-ever Southeast Asian Games overall title in 2005.

And, in what is being bruited about as one of the reasons he’s taking a shot at another four-year term, the country celebrated the end of a 20-year Olympic medal drought in August, when Hidilyn Diaz captured a silver in the Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.

At Wack Wack Golf and Country Club during that general assembly meeting, loyal supporters conjured a Cojuangco “show of force” by getting him to pose for a picture with representatives of 11 national sports associations (NSAs) in martial arts.

“Mind you, they’re only in martial arts,” said an NSA official closely identified with the younger brother of the late President Corazon Aquino, telegraphing the support Cojuangco and his fellow POC officers supposedly enjoy from among the 41 voting NSAs.

No opponent

The new set of POC officers will be elected by the NSAs, two athletes’ representatives and the representative to the Philippines of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)—no other than Cojuangco’s daughter, Asian Games champion equestrienne Mikee Cojuangco-Jaworski—in the much-anticipated elections on Nov. 25.

Here’s the gist: Cojuangco won’t have an opponent for POC president because the local Olympic body’s election committee had ruled that only the incumbent is qualified to run for the post.

Buried under that heavily disputed ruling is the candidacy of the only person who dared challenge him: Ricky Vargas, the president of the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (Abap).

The reason for Vargas’ disqualification is unheard of in the history of POC elections. He—not the boxing NSA, which always sent a representative—was absent from at least seven of the POC’s 12 GA meetings in the past two years.

Frank Elizalde, the former IOC representative to the country who heads the POC poll panel, justified the disqualification, saying Vargas’ candidacy violated the POC charter.

Under Section 7, Article 11 of the charter, “The chairman and the president of the POC must have had at least four years’ experience as NSA president of an Olympic sport at the time of his election as POC chairman or president, provided that they must be elected from any of the incumbent NSA presidents representing an Olympic sport, and provided further, that they have been an active member of the POC General Assembly for two consecutive years at the time of their election.”

According to Elizalde, an “active member” should have attended the majority of the 12 GAs, which were held every other month over the past two years.

“It’s pretty clear it’s the individual and not the NSAs itself,” he says. “We are not here in any way to disparage or affect any candidacy. This is a totally objective observation. I am quoting from a document that was not written yesterday, but for a few years. If you’re thinking of running for POC, you should have thought about it two years earlier.”

The argument of Elizalde, a longtime friend of Cojuangco, infuriates Vargas’ disbelieving camp.

Lawyer Chito Salud, the former commissioner of the Philippine Basketball Association who serves as Vargas’ spokesperson, describes Elizalde’s verdict as “flawed” and his interpretation of active member “unreasonable.” Salud points out that Abap, not necessarily Vargas, was represented during the 12 GAs.

“The arbitrary and whimsical interpretation applied by the election committee unjustly prejudices the substantive rights of the Abap,” says Vargas, grandson of Jorge Vargas, a founding member and chair for two decades of the POC’s forerunner, the Philippine Amateur Athletic Federation.

“It is too simplistic. The decision of the election committee to disqualify my candidacy for POC president is flawed and defective for lack of due process, both procedural and substantive. It must be reversed.”

Salud rues the poll panel’s indifference.

“The election committee failed and refused to see the merits of the arguments raised by Mr. Vargas,” he says. “It has chosen to stick to its myopic and unreasonable interpretation of ‘active member.’

“The POC by-laws do not contain any definition of ‘active member’ nor any clear guidelines to determine active membership. By insisting on attendance and physical presence in the GA as a sole measure of a candidate’s activity, the election committee is arbitrarily placing a restriction on eligibility where the rules provide none.”

Vargas, a top executive at PLDT-Smart Communication, claims to enjoy the support of the majority of the NSAs, including at least eight which the foundation directly or indirectly bankrolls. He says that many NSAs cannot come out in the open to support his candidacy for fear of reprisal.

When he filed his candidacy last Oct. 24, Vargas said he represented a much-needed shift in Philippine sports by “empowering the NSAs,” adding he would end the days in which the NSAs operated under the “dictate of Cojuangco’s POC.”

“The [present] dispensation has caused them (certain NSAs) to fear coming out,” says Vargas. “They said ‘We also fear for our athletes.’ Remember that POC has very important functions, one of which is to authorize athletes who compete [overseas]. And if that function is used in a very selective way, it’s very powerful.”

If given the chance to serve as POC head, Vargas promises to work with William “Butch” Ramirez, the influential Chair of the Philippine Sports Commission who is not to known to enjoy the smoothest of ties with Cojuangco.

Incidentally, Cojuangco does not rely solely on what his allies describe as solid support from among the voting NSAs. Though Vargas could well be Cojuangco’s strongest challenger since 2008, when the late Art Macapagal stood against him, the allies say the Abap chief is not without a weak spot.

Cojuangco himself questions Vargas’ fitness to head the POC.

‘Below expectations’

“What has happened to his boxing?” says the three-term POC chief, referring to Abap which he notes has not delivered for the country in recent international competitions, including the Olympics. “Boxing has performed below expectations.”

Abap qualified just two boxers for the Rio Olympics and both failed to advance past their first fights. Until Diaz’s weightlifting silver, though, boxing provided the country’s last Olympic medal through Mansueto “Onyok” Velasco in 1996 in Atlanta.

Last week, Vargas’ camp met anew with the POC election panel but the latter stuck to its ruling that he is still ineligible to run.

An NSA official sympathetic to Vargas says their candidate has no other recourse but to seek a temporary restraining order (TRO) to prevent the POC from holding the elections. They are also planning to file a case with the Court of Arbitration for Sports in Lausanne, Switzerland, to contest the POC election panel’s ruling.

“It’s unfortunate that change will once again have to be wrested from rather than guided and ushered in by enlightened leaders we in the sports sorely miss,” says Salud in a statement, adding they will seek the “support of the athletes” for their cause.

The group of companies controlled by tycoon Manny V. Pangilinan, Vargas’ patron, enjoys the backing of athletes in several NSAs, including basketball, boxing, taekwondo, football, badminton, cycling and, in some degree, weightlifting, tennis and rowing.

Vargas’ camp is mum on reports that several NSAs might push for a vote of no-confidence against Cojuangco before the elections are held. An NSA head says his group prefers this action to filing for a TRO, which constitutes government intervention and invites sanction from the IOC.

But that will not be an easy task. Until then, pundits say, Philippine sports is headed for a more contentious and uncertain times.