TOP officials of the Philippine Olympic Committee have committed to vacate their positions to set the stage for a special election that can happen as early as July 5.
POC chairman Abraham ‘Bambol’ Tolentino and Joey Romasanta led the officials who expressed their intention to step down as soon as possible on Wednesday during an extraordinary general assembly held at the GSIS gymnasium.
Also expressing their willingness to step down were board member Clint Aranas and auditor Jonne Go.
However, the extraordinary general assembly was declared invalid due to a technicality. As such, the session turned into ‘informal meeting,’ which means all decisions that were made may not necessarily be valid and binding.
However, Tolentino has called for a July 5 election to fill up the vacancies at the Golden Bay Restaurant in Pasay City, pending formal proceedings.
“Nag-announce ako ng election, taking the opportunity na nandoon lahat, 10 days from now (which is) at July 5. Nasa batas, within 30 days, you call an election. But after the discussion, sabi ng mga tao, bakit hindi na lang kayo mag-resign lahat at ‘yun ang i-elect natin. Pumayag ako. I will vacate my chairmanship, pumayag lahat at kahulihan si Mr. Romasanta,” said Tolentino.
“Once and for all, tapusin na natin ito. What is 10 days. Mag-eleksyon na tayo,” said Tolentino.
There are doubts, however, on whether the July 5 election can push through considering the tedious process it entails to hold an election, including the creation of an election committee and the submission of certificates of candidacy.
Nevertheless, Romasanta, who became POC president by succession following the resignation of Ricky Vargas, vowed to step down for the sake of what he described as a 'damaged organization.'
Romasanta said he also doesn’t intend to run for president if an election is set.
“I’m just trying to complete my tenure as first vice president and retire from there. Hopefully, we can get a fresh mandate here for the new officers and we’d like to do it as soon as possible,” said Romasanta.
“This is something that I felt should be done,” Romasanta said. “We need fresh faces, new faces, new ideas in the POC. We can’t go on with this forever. We are a very divided POC. I hope the next generation and new set of officers would be able to address all of this and change the image of the POC.”
In the end, Romasanta said resignation is the only course of action.
“The POC, as it is, is a damaged organization. We need to take these drastic measures to correct things and provide for a better POC,” said Romasanta.
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