Tolentino announces second set of POC elections on July 5

Amidst the recent resignation of Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) President Ricky Vargas eighteen months after being in office, Chairman Bambol Tolentino has announced that the organization will be holding a special election. (Photo: POC – Philippine Olympic Committee – Olympic.PH/Facebook)

Last Tuesday, June 25, an informal general assembly was held at the GSIS Building in Pasay, where four more members of the POC Executive Board continued to resign, namely Tolentino himself, First Vice President Joey Romasanta, Auditor Jonne Go, and member Clint Aranas. 

Tolentino explained calling for the special elections saying, that the general assembly a few days ago was invalid. In his words, “hey called for an extraordinary GA but an extraordinary GA, stated in the bylaws of the POC, you must have a 10-day notice. If Mr. Vargas resigned on June 18, ten days from then is on June 28. I don’t want to be part of an invalid GA.” He continued, “After that, I announced an election, taking the opportunity that everyone is there. I announced the election 10 days from now, which is the regular basic rule.”

In addition, although Romasanta should take up Vargas’ post due to rule of succession, he announced that he will not be running for presidency, explaining, “This (resignation) is something also that I felt should have been done long ago. And I said, we need fresh faces, new faces. New ideas in the POC. We cannot go on like this forever. Very clearly, we had a very divided Committee.” He added, “The Philippine Olympic Committee itself is already a damaged organization. That’s why we had to take this drastic measure for us to be able to correct things and at the same time provide a better POC.”

Whoever wins in the elections on July 5 will be fulfilling the vacant posts only until December 31, 2020, which refers to the unfinished terms of those who resigned.