AFTER all has been said, done and texted, does anybody have a clear idea of what will happen on Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) Election Day, Nov. 30?
I’ll bet the answer is negative.
Some days ago for example, Ricky Palou, a member of the POC Comelec, was quoted in the papers saying that Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association head Go Teng Kok would be allowed to run for president if he could show proof that the Philippine Olympic Committee had received a copy of the Supreme Court decision dismissing the POC’s appeal to reverse a Pasig Regional Trial Court decision acknowledging GTK as Philippine Karatedo Federation president and voiding the persona non grata issue.
Yesterday I requested Palou for an update. Has GTK submitted the document the POC Comelec was asking for? Does his declaration still stand?
Palou said that while GTK has submitted the papers, the election committee composed of Victorico Chavez, Bro, Bernie Oca of De la Salle University and himself, will still have to meet on Nov. 22 to decide.
Frustrated, I turned to Manny Lopez, POC first vice president reelectionist, in an effort to squeeze out vital information from him. Does his group have a stand on GTK?
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Manny’s reply: “Not yet. You know very well our group is committed to MVP as our president. Even if he did not agree [to run in] this November election, his ascension to the POC presidency is soon to come.
“GTK’s group and ours have a common goal and that is we are both agents for reforms and change in the present leadership.”
Manny stressed that the Comelec and Peping cannot run rings around the Supreme Court decision.
“That’s travesty of the highest order. Let’s wait for the action from the Supreme Court and it will be catastrophic for Peping.” Manny said.
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Jella, my masseuse, is not a basketball fan. In fact she hardly knows anything about basketball, local or otherwise.
The other day, while I was enduring a hard kneading on my back, Jella asked if I knew a PBA cager named Arvin. “Arvin Santos,” she repeated.
“You probably mean Arwind,” I corrected her. “Of course I know him. Why do you ask?”
Jella said she heard on radio that this Arwind and his wife had separated after his wife had caught him “en flagrante delicto” (in the act) having sex with his mistress.
“She has left him, but not before ensuring (herself) ownership of his major assets and the custody of their two children. He now lives with his mistress.”
The hosts of the morning radio program are very credible, Jella said, because they are two of the most popular and highly respected television news personalities.
“At first they tried to keep it a blind item but in the end, they gave out the name,” she said.
I was sleepy but I tried to digest what I just heard. Was it possible that Arwind had managed a fastbreak, not really from his wife Yvette, but from his father-in-law Danny Gavierrez? It just didn’t seem possible.
* * *
Hours later, I was on the phone having a heart to heart talk with the Petron Blaze cager.
He was incredulous. He said it was not the first time he heard the rumor. It was recently in the sports page of a tabloid.
“It’s not true, it’s just not possible,” Arwind said, anger betraying his voice.
“As we speak, I’m here at the SM Megamall with my family doing some shopping. My pregnant wife is here with me and our two children.”
Arwind has never denied that he has had a storied romantic past and that he has three other children from previous relationships but that, he said, is a thing of the past.
He has since taken the path of the straight and narrow.
“Thanks mostly to the man called ‘Alikabok’ by friends?” I teased.
Arwind laughed heartily—apparently in agreement.
Where and how the rumor started, Arwind doesn’t care to find out. All he wants to know is the name of the writer who came out with the story in a tabloid. “Could I help him?” he asked.