PSI reorganizes without Joseph

The National Sports Association (NSA) for swimming, PSI (Philippine Swimming, Inc.), held “snap” elections to choose a new set of officers and members of the Board of Trustees at the Manila Golf and Country Club in Makati last Saturday. Lani Velasco, formerly secretary-general and officer-in-charge, was voted president, representing NCR in the Board.

A group, calling itself the legitimate PSI Board, has registered its objection to the elections in a letter addressed to POC secretary-general Steve Hontiveros and Joey Romasanta of the POC membership committee dated last Feb. 18. “Not only was Ms. Lailani Velasco not authorized to call such an election but these were not compliant with either the PSI By-Laws or the POC General Assembly resolution dated Jan. 24, 2007, which can only be waived by the General Assembly itself,” wrote signatories of the group, namely Luisito Mangahis, Ral Rosario, Akiko Thomson, Pinky Brosas, Eddie Ledesma, Rodney Barretto, Lucrecio Calo and a proxy for Teresita Sy.

The “snap” elections were authorized by the POC with deputy secretary-general Simeon Garcia as observer. In the polls, 12 of the 15 seats in the Board were filled up as 65 of the PSI’s 70 registered clubs were accounted for. None of Mangahis’ group attended. Another major swimming stakeholder Nikki Coseteng was not present. Voted to the Board were Velasco, Sherwyn Santiago, Jeff Lao, Romar Buenaceda, Vivian Grey, Vero Paloma, Rustom Villanueva, and Christian Gonzales representing five regions, Rod Sacdalan for Drowning Prevention, Rey Galang for Water Polo and Reina Suarez for Synchronized Swimming. The three vacant slots in the Board are for Schools, Learn-to-Swim and Diving.

Before the elections, long-time PSI president Mark Joseph resigned his position in absentia. Joseph sent in his letter of resignation from Indiana, Illinois, where he attended a coaching conference. “I resigned so a new president may be elected in accordance with the By-Laws,” said Joseph. “In order to do it, the members will have to elect their own representatives to the Board. Our By-Laws were written to make sure of one thing – to maintain the autonomy of our federation. 

“This is only possible now that the transitory provisions of our By-Laws have lapsed and all of us are merely sitting as holdovers until our successors are elected by the members. The prospect of democracy is a threat to people who have been in position that were never elected before. Anyone that prefers the status quo simply prefers themselves more than the reason the federation and its rules exist. My friends and colleagues in the former Board that violated the election rules a year ago are the ones who approved these rules.”

Swimming coach Anthony Lozada, who attended Saturday’s elections, called it a miracle that PSI has survived troubled waters. “Where were Brosas, Mangahis, Calo and the others in 2015 when Philippine swimming was sinking?” he said. “They abandoned ship and left their captain Mark with a sinking ship with all the legitimate members, including swimmers, officials, divers, water polo players and parents. It was a blessing that there was a parent on board Lani whom Mark asked help from to prevent the ship from sinking. Otherwise, all the members including myself would have died with our captain.

“From 2015-17, Ral and Pinky registered themselves and their swimmers with PSI knowing fully well that Lani was the secretary-general with Mark as president. If they were both illegally occupying their positions, why did they submit to Mark’s and Lani’s authority? From 2015-17, Lani, Mark and the members all did their share in preventing the ship from sinking. PSI had 3-4 top American coaches come to the Philippines and teach the coaches how to develop champions. Top FINA technical officials also flew in to train our Pinoy officials how to effectively do their job. 

  “In 2016-17, we had a full contingent of age-group swimmers train for almost a month and a half in the US with Olympic coaches and this resulted in awesome record-breaking performances in the UAAP and Asian Age Championships. In all my 35 years of coaching, I’ve never experienced this high. Even majority of my colleagues in Philippine coaching have never been so inspired and confident with their craft ever since Mark and Lani took over that sinking ship. Now, when everything is finally looking bright in Philippine swimming, we have again people who want to bring it down to what it was before.”