Dayrit willing to submit to POC confidence vote

Philippine Olympic Committee secretary-general Romeo Ribano yesterday said that top POC officials, including president Celso Dayrit, are willing to undergo a confidence vote to determine whether or not the current leadership still enjoys the support of the majority.

"We welcome that. That way, it would be easy to determine if we (still) deserve to be here. If we are voted out, so be it. But if we aren’t, then they should shut up," said Ribano, referring to POC critics led by athletics chief Go Teng Kok.

On Wednesday, the POC General Assembly will convene for the fourth and last time this year and sources said the controversial athletics chief will push for the confidence vote after the plan was aborted during the last meeting two months ago at the Philippine Columbian Association (PCA).

The POC general assembly has 35 voting members — the heads of the 34 National Sports Associations, and that of International Olympic Committee (IOC) representative to the Philippines Frank Elizalde. A two-thirds vote is needed to justify a vote of no confidence.

In last year’s POC elections, Dayrit defeated Go by a wide margin, 22-11 (with one abstention), although Go had claimed that he now has the numbers, with the biggest support coming from NSAs that were recently rocked by leadership disputes. Elizalde only votes if there is a tie to break.

On Wednesday, the POC will also tackle the case of Freddie Jalasco, who continues to serve as a member of the executive board despite his exit as president of the Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP). Jalasco also acted as RP chief of mission to the recent Kuala Lumpur SEA Games.