BOXING chief Ricky Vargas gets another chance to seek out the top post of the Philippine Olympic Committee by February next year.
This was after Judge Maria Gracia Cadiz-Casaclang of Branch 155 of the Pasig Regional Trial Court declared the election for the position of POC president and chairman as null and void in a decision released last Dec. 1.
Vargas earlier questioned the decision of the POC electoral body, disqualifying him from participating in the POC polls held Nov. 25, 2016.
According the two-page decision, the POC Election Committee acted beyond the scope of its power and authority that was granted by the POC executive board.
The POC poll body, according to the decision, “violated its own election rules when it motu propio disqualified Mr. Vargas and Mr. (Abraham) Tolentino from its list of candidates for the 2016 elections for president and chairman.”
The court has also ordered that new elections be held on Feb. 23, 2018 for the position of president and chairman, and that Vargas and Tolentino should be included as candidates.
“Finally, we have obtained justice,” said Vargas, who as president of the Alliance of Boxing Associations in the Philippines, was qualified to run in the polls.
But his and Tolentino’s absence from regular meetings of the POC General Assembly were the main reason why the election committee disqualified them from the POC elections.
POC bylaws contend that for one to seek an elective post, the official must be physically present in the regular POC General Assembly.
Before the elections were held, Vargas already sought, but failed to secure a temporary restraining order to stop the polls, allowing incumbent POC president Jose “Peping” Cojuangco Jr. to run unopposed.
The post of POC Chairman was left vacant after triathlon’s Tom Carrasco was also disqualified.
In a resolution sent to all parties concerned before the polls, International Olympic Committee representative Frank Elizalde explained that physical attendance was main requirement for an official of a national sports association to be made eligible to run for a post in the POC elections—a requirement he said Vargas failed to meet.
Elizalde headed the POC poll body with Bro. Bernie Oca of De La Salle University and Rep. Conrado Estrella III, chairman of the House Committee on Youth and Sports Development.
The POC has yet to receive a written copy of the court’s decision.