Bambol Tolentino elected as new POC president

Photo by June Navarro/INQUIRER

MANILA, Philippines—Cycling chief Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino emerged as the new Philippine Olympic Committee president on Sunday’s election of the local Olympic body held at the Century Park Hotel in Manila.

Tolentino got 24 of the 44 possible votes made up of 41 national sports associations, two Olympians from the athletes commission and International Olympic Committee representative Mikee Cojuangco-Jaworski.

“Now that this is over, we can move forward and focus on the SEA Games,” said Tolentino, a Congressman from Cavite and PhilCycling president.

Steve Hontiveros of handball was elected the new chairman after prevailing over Robert Aventajado of taekwondo, 26-18, during the polls smoothly conducted by the three-man election committee composed of lawyer Teodoro Kalaw IV, Fr. Vic Calvo OP of Letran and Congressman Conrado Estrella III.

Joining Tolentino and Hontiveros in the POC executive board are Clint Aranas of archery (24 votes) and Cynthia Carrion of gymnastics (23 votes), who will all serve the remaining 15 months of the current Olympic term.

Losing POC presidential candidate Philip Ella Juico of track and field garnered 20 votes while board member aspirants Monico Puentevella of weightlifting (21 votes) and Lani Velasco of swimming (19 votes) also didn’t make it.

The just-concluded POC election, the third in the current Olympic cycle, was witnessed by India Olympic Committee president Dr. Narinder Dhruv Batra as representative from the International Olympic Committee and the Olympic Council of Asia.