Comelec decision ‘flawed’, defective’

Vargas protests disqualification

MANILA, Philippines - Boxing chief Ricky Vargas yesterday appealed for a reversal of the election committee’s decision to disqualify him from the Philippine Olympic Committee’s elections, claiming it was “flawed and defective for lack of due process.”

The PLDT executive formally filed a protest/motion for reconsideration with the POC two days after the Comelec headed by Frank Elizalde declared him ineligible to run against incumbent president Peping Cojuangco in the Nov. 25 polls.

Vargas, according to Elizalde, failed to meet the requirement of “active membership” in the POC general assembly for the past two years as prescribed by Article 7, Section 11 of the Olympic body’s by-laws.

But the Association of Boxing Alliances of the Philippines (ABAP) head argued that “active membership” should not be confined to physical presence during the GA, as how the Comelec viewed it.

“Active member is at best a nebulous eligibility requirement that has been left undefined by a clearcut set of parameters and criteria in the POC by-laws,” Vargas’ lawyer Chito Salud said in a statement.

“The election committee, however, chose to limit the meaning and measure of a member’s activity solely to attendance and physical presence at the general assembly. This is deficient. Active membership is more than attendance. Physical presence at the general assembly does not equate to active participation,” he added.

Vargas described the Comelec’s decision as “flawed and defective for lack of due process, both procedural and substantive” and as such, “it must be reversed.”

 “First, the decision was made without any objection or opposition from a known third party. Second, it was hastily rendered without the basic requisite hearing having been accorded to Mr Vargas,” he said.

“While the disqualification was made public via a verbal declaration, no written resolution has to date been issued by the election committee specifying and explaining the grounds for the exclusion…without such written ineligibility order, the decision is deemed to be based on a myopic and unsubstantiated interpretation of the words ‘active member’ in the POC general assembly.”

Vargas reiterated his call for a free and fair election.

“The arbitrary and whimsical interpretation applied by the election committee unjustly prejudices the substantive rights of the ABAP and Ricky Vargas. It is too simplistic. In the end, it is our athletes and NSAs who shall invariably be deprived of their right to a free and fair democratic exercise in hopes of reinvigorating Philippine sports,” he said.

Should the Comelec thumb down the protest, the Vargas camp has the option of elevating the matter to the executive board, or as final recourse, the general assembly.

Meanwhile, Vargas’ ticketmate, Rep. Bambol Tolentino of cycling, who was similarly disqualified as candidate for chairman, is said to be filing his own appeal as well.