IT’S time to uphold good governance in the Philippine Olympic Committee.
Boxing chief Ricky Vargas said this as he supported Philippine Football Federation president Mariano “Nonong” Araneta’s letter of protest against POC president Jose “Peping” Cojuangco Jr.
Araneta believes that Cojaungco is no long eligible to seek another term of office in POC, and this is because a total term limit of 12 years has been set by the International Olympic Committee.
“If the IOC is following this rule, it’s time to uphold governance,” said Vargas, who guested yesterday at the “Kapihan sa Manila Bay in Café Adriatico in Malate, Manila.
In his letter addressed to the three-man election panel headed by Frank Elizalde, Araneta stressed six points against Cojuangco, and bared that the IOC provision for president was issued on Dec. 12, 1999.
Under the 17-year old ruling, the president has a fixed term of 8 years, and is renewable for four years only and a total of 12 years in office.
Because of this, Araneta believes that Cojuangco is violating section 2.8, which is about Good Governance in the IOC Code of Ethics.
Vargas said he is now appealing to the General Assembly of the POC to be reasonable and look at things from a reasonable standpoint.
“Let’s forget about the legal process. Let’s go and think about it, from a reasonable standpoint. Allow the elections to come. Allow people to have a choice, allow democracy to happen,” said Vargas.
Vargas’ camp said they will seek for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) from the Pasig Regional Trial Court (RTC) court to stop the scheduled election of officers of the Philippine Olympic Committee on Nov. 25.
Lawyer Jake Corporal of the ACCRA law office said they will seek the TRO from the Pasig RTC on Nov. 19, that’s 10 days after receiving the copy of the Nov. 4 final decision of the POC Commission on Election.
The panel rejected their appeal for reconsideration over the earlier ruling disqualifying Vargas from running as president.
Vargas said the term active member is susceptible to so many interpretations.
“The By-Laws of an organizations allows a member to be represented in the meeting and he is still an active member. We are going to court to file a TRO so that the term active member would be interpreted once and for all,” said Vargas.