AFTER announcing his withdrawal from the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) presidential race last Wednesday night, Go Teng Kok has become incommunicado.
It was only yesterday that I heard from him via a text message he had sent to five people. It was an open letter baring his heart out, explaining why he backed out at the last minute.
It wasn’t about money, he said, because he had prepared for his projected expenses. Neither was there a death threat, a blackmail or a betrayal involved on his part.
Before I got the SMS from Go, I wondered if he had attended the elections at the Alabang Country Club, and if he was allowed to vote.
It turned out Go was not at the election site. In fact when I finally got to talk to him yesterday, he said he had isolated himself completely since Wednesday night, shunning all forms of media and mobile communications.
He said he didn’t want to absorb all the brickbats and poison darts that had been coming his way since his change of heart.
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In his open letter to a key supporter of the Manny Lopez group, he said that even if Lopez and Monico Puentevella were “the villains who had destroyed and crucified me without due process,” (in other words, they were masterminds of the persona non grata decision) their meeting had inspired him to fight harder for a change in POC leadership because “I knew that you were all supporting our united clamor to remove the authoritarian rule in Philippine sports.”
“However, after that meeting, you kept silent, much to my surprise. It appeared that you were giving your full trust and confidence to Manny and Monico, the culprits with no credibility who discredited me with Peping.
“I can pursue the fight against the unpopular POC head with my own ammunition to achieve the mission. I know I can do it. But who will gain if I succeeded to fight alone? The same people who destroyed and crucified me without due process. It was Manny and Monico who railroaded the proceedings when the two of them and Peping were still allies. Now they’re up against Peping.
“They’re pushing me to exchange blows with Peping while they watch from the sidelines. “If you had just thrown your full backing and support to me, there would have been a different ending to the story. Perhaps we could have achieved our mission which is not at all impossible.
“Towards the end of my battle with the one in power, I realized that I will gain nothing but bruises while the undeserving will benefit. There will be no reforms, the incumbent will be replaced by new people with the same rotten system and principles.
“Look at what happened to the people you trusted. They were all annihilated because they lacked credibility. I’ve done my part. No regrets.”
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Well that should put closure to Go’s mystery withdrawal. But here’s food for thought. The judge from whom he was securing a TRO before he changed his mind has informed Go that he can put the Nov. 30 elections under protest because it was illegal. According to the judge, the POC had ignored the regional trial court and the subsequent Supreme Court decision which recognized Go as the legitimate Philippine Karatedo president and not Joey Romasanta.
That should have disqualified Joey from running for the position of first vice president.