CONSIDER muay thai association Secretary-General Pearl Managuelod a sure winner in the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) elections that started to simmer into a hotly-contested political exercise set on November 27.
On September 26, POC President Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino announced his ticket as he seeks reelection after winning the organization’s top post only in July last year through an International Olympic Committee-ordered polls.
Managuelod was on Tolentino’s team as a candidate for director.
Exactly two weeks later last Saturday, Tolentino’s lone opponent, archery head Jesus Clint Aranas, bared his in a fiery video-linked news conference that targeted Tolentino’s administration.
And Managuelod was on Aranas’s roster, too. Their adopted candidate, the former Government Service Insurance System president, said.
Managuelod couldn’t be the Helen that sparked that epic and bloody Trojan-Greek war from the 2004 film Troy. For the 41-year-old Managuelod, she believes it’s her love for sports that made her a common candidate for the warring sides.
But she and her national sports association—the Muay Thai Association of the Philippines—has cemented their choice.
“My loyalty lies with the Olympic movement, the athletes and Philippine sports,” Managuelod told BusinessMirror. “But my NSA and I fully support Rep. Tolentino and our party.”