“Trump Triumphs.” This was the headline of the New York Times, bastion of the Eastern Establishment, the morning after American politics went through a seismic change.
“Vargas Victorious.” It is my dream sports headline, when the leadership of the POC would be finally put, at the end of the unlamented 12-year presidency of Peping Cojuangco that squandered golden chances of our sports revival, in the hands of boxing chief Ricky Vargas.
I have no grand illusions that Vargas is a man for change and of change as Trump is in channeling the anger and frustrations of Middle America into an electoral upset that has shaken world capitals. Vargas is no President Duterte either, the tough-talking man from Davao who, in May, channeled the voice of anti-establishment into a near-landslide victory that has turned Philippine politics upside down.
Vargas, is after all, the corporeal resurrection of that man MVP—Manny V. Pangilinan of the Indonesian Salim’s financial empire that has entwined its tentacles tightly (some argue in a deadly embrace) on the national life, because it is into power and telecommunications and media.
But between a man like Peping, who has been blissfully blind to his official flaws and failures as a sports leader, and a man, Vargas, who at least understands the necessary ingredients to revive moribund Philippine sports, I would go, albeit critically, for someone who could break the damning ineptitude of the POC.
I would go for someone to dismantle Peping’s rule, whose hold on the POC is more deathly. I would put my bets on MVP’s factotum, because his boss has the vision and will of a practiced business empire builder and, most of all, the passion of a sportsman (even if physically he could feebly qualify for that) that would reenergize sports.
I would go for someone who would spend the POC’s precious money wisely, observing the time-honored public-service tenets of transparency and accountability..
Peping? Enough of him. Enough of his hacks and charlatans who gave us fat promises and only monumental and embarrassing meltdowns in competitions. He was, I concede, a good politician and street parliamentarian in another time.
An audacious dreamer, not a pugnacious symbol of the status quo, is our brave, bold prescription of leadership in a revitalized POC.
For many sports critics and fans—and this may be painful to admit—Peping has not channeled the best talents and incredible energy of a nation to mount a dazzling surge in sports. If he had pulled up the Philippine contingent in the Southeast Asian Games, and made them compellingly competitive again in the Asian Games, the much harder competition, the performance record would be enough to rescue Peping from damning questions now hounding him. Not the least of them how the POC had spent P129.6 million in funding from the Philippine Sports Commission from 2010 to 2016.
But nothing of that miracle happened. Instead, in the Southest Asian (SEA) Games, where only a decade ago Filipinos had won the general championship, we went into a tailspin, falling too steeply that even tiny Singapore, whose talent pool is nothing to the vast number we have, passed us by.
In the Olympics, only weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz’s personal persistence and great sacrifice, after being yanked out by the POC from the training pool, gave us an Olympic medal, the first in more than two decades.
Now, Sen. Sonny Angara, who is a true sportsman, is stepping in to try to save Philippine sports from being damaged further by the POC. In Senate Resolution 229 he filed on Wednesday, he asked that the committee on sports look into the P129.6 million in funding, which the Olympic body spent over the past six years. Angara, in his resolution, said the amount “remains not fully liquidated”.
Further, it quoted reports that the POC has imposed unjust “eligibility requirements for the candidates for POC president”, inevitably putting the democratic election “under attack”. Interested candidates are prevented from running by the eligibility requirements imposed by the POC’s amended bylaws.
The man who has just reclaimed a world championship belt in the ring, Manny Pacquiao, chairs the committee on sports. He knows what it takes to be excellent, and is fair. It is the second aspect of the inquiry that is of greater immediate interest to us.
I don’t know if Peping has a dictatorship over the POC purse, but one thing I am sure of is his iron hand, unseen but exercised with venomously over the POC Comelec, which has disqualified the last man standing to challenge him in this month’s election, Vargas.
The Comelec has ruled Vargas ineligible simply because he does not regularly attend the general assembly meetings that would make him an “active member”. Vargas’s legal team has argued its case, saying “active membership” should not be confined to mere physical presence, but taken in the larger context of participation by Vargas’s association, boxing.
Elections are won when the majority of members could trust you to do the right thing and to be honest and upright. Peping should tell his Comelec to allow every challenger stand and fight him, mano a mano, in a fair election.
Let this be a referendum on his leadership. You win unchallenged—but you will reap the whirlwind. Sometimes changes don’t come from the ballot. Just study your POC history.