Romasanta declines LVP presidency

MANILA, Philippines – The plot thickens.

After announcing his takeover as interim president of the newly installed Philippine Volleyball Federation, Joey Romasanta has now decided to decline the post following the advice of Philippine Olympic Committee president Jose "Peping" Cojuangco, Jr. to include members of the defunct Phl Volleyball Federation.

"Our mandate which was to gather the stakeholders and put together this federation is already done," said Romasanta during Thursday's POC meeting.

Romasanta though didn't say the reason behind his sudden decision not to accept the post in the group that he helped form with Super Liga's Tatz Suzara, Shakey's V-League and Ateneo's Ricky Palou, POC vice president Jeff Tamayo, consultant Chippy Espiritu and legal counsel Atty. Ramon Malinao.

Initially, the LVP, which has the blessings of the FIBV or International Volleyball Federation and the Asian Volleyball Confederation, was supposed to be composed of the POC, Super Liga, V-League, UAAP and NCAA.

But Cojuangco insisted to spread other slots to other stakeholders, including some officials of the dead PVF.

Enter Victorico Chavez, a former Congressman, Ottie Camangian and Karl Chan, who are all part of the PVF board before its demise following LVP's entry.

The odd man out is Suzara, who helped LVP get FIVB and AVC blessings but could lose his spot in the board because he allegedly didn't get the nod of Cojuangco.

With Romasanta and Tamayo out, expect the LVP presidency to be up for grabs with names like Chavez himself, NCAA and Arellano University's Peter Cayco and Palou coming out as candidates for the spot.

The LVP is pressured to come out with a board and a list of officers on or before Feb. 15 as required by the FIVB.

"It's a case of cooking something for some people to eat, that's what happened in the LVP," a source told The STAR.