Vargas files official POC bid

Challenges Cojuangco for top post

MANILA, Philippines - Association of Boxing Alliances of the Philippines (ABAP) president Ricky Vargas formally filed his candidacy for the top post in the Philippine Olympic Committee yesterday on a bid anchored on needed reforms that would help revitalize Philippine sports.

Vargas, leading a full ticket including Rep. Bambol Tolentino (cycling) as chairman, Rep. Albee Benitez (badminton) as first vice president and muay thai’s Lucas Managuelod as second vice president, is seeking to end the 12-year tenure of incumbent president Jose “Peping” Cojuangco Jr.

  Also running under Vargas  ticket are Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) executive director Sonny Barrios as treasurer and Ting Ledesma of table tennis as auditor.

“I think we have a very good team, a fresh team, and ready to serve,” said Vargas, grandson of Jorge Vargas, a founding member and former president of the Philippine Amateur Athletic Federation (forerunner of the POC).

A man with impressive credentials in the corporate world, Vargas promised to bring good governance that will make the athletes proud of the officials that represent them.

He bared his platform to sports media at the Marco Polo Hotel in Ortigas Center before proceeding to the POC office inside the Ultra Complex to file his candidacy, accompanied by Tolentino, Managuelod and Barrios, among others.

The 64-year-old MVP Group top executive vowed  to empower the national sports associations, have a good working relationship with the Philippine Sports Commission and get support from the International Olympic Committee.

Does he have the number to gain the POC presidency? He’s said he hopes to  amass the needed votes  before election day on Nov. 25.

“That’s always the question that I hear. Yes we do is easiest way to say it. But I don’t do that. I want firm commitment. Hopefully as we get closer to Nov, 25, we could prove that we could make this big step not for us but for them (nationals sports associations and the athletes),” said Vargas.

“We’re getting a lot of support from the athletes. But we’re having difficulty with the NSAs because the feel intimidated by the 12-year dispensation,” Vargas also said.

“They’re afraid to come out.  It’s very vindictive,” Vargas added. “So we have our number ‘for change’ and they have their number borne out of fear.”

Vargas is the first to challenge the presidency of Cojuangco in eight years.

Cojuangco became POC president in 2004 by acclamation and narrowly defeated the late Art Macapagal of shooting in the 2008 elections, 21-19. In 2012, the former Tarlac congressman ran unopposed after Manny V. Pangilinan, the former president of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas, begged off from seeking the top POC post.

There are 44 voting members of the POC, representing the national sports associations, the athletes commission and the International Olympic Committee representative.

“It’s a choice between more of the same or something new,” said Vargas of the issue on election day.