There’s an elite athlete inside the heavily divided Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) executive board who is witness to how disunity works in the country’s top sports body, especially in the past few months leading to the elections.
Two-time Southeast Asian Games triathlon champion Nikko Huelgas sits as a representative of the athletes commission, and his job is to make sure that—despite the clash of ideas—the athletes’ rights are upheld at all times.
“These election times, [I see] a lot of politicking and it’s giving me some entertainment and headaches,” Huelgas told the Inquirer. “[But] I know where to position [myself] fairly. And with that, I am always for my athletes.”
Huelgas leads a three-member athletes commission that includes Rio Olympics silver medalist Hidilyn Diaz and fellow Olympian Jhessie King Lacuna.
In the Nov. 27 POC elections, Diaz and Lacuna are eligible to cast one vote each along with 51 representatives of the national sports associations and International Olympic Committee representative to the Philippines, Mikee Cojuangco-Jaworski.
Though POC elections are historically contentious, this year’s poll has split the body between supporters of incumbent Abraham Tolentino of cycling and Clint Aranas of archery.