POC orders cycling, badminton factions to settle leadership row

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) executive committee on Wednesday ordered warring groups in cycling and badminton to hold one final election to determine who should lead their respective associations. To ensure fairness on both sides, POC president Jose Cojuangco Jr. also ordered PhilCycling and the Philippine Badminton Association (PBA) to use the old voters list or the record of the ones who took part in their last elections as the legitimate electors who will choose their new set of officers. The voters who voted for Alberto “Bert" Lina in 2003 will be allowed to participate in the PhilCycling election set on May 9 at the Velodrome. Tapped as POC observer is soft tennis president Jeff Tamayo. Voters who participated in the PBA election that saw Amelita “Ming" Ramos winning the presidency two years ago are also required to join the new election tentatively set also on May 9 at the Rizal Memorial Badminton Center. Tagaytay City Mayor Abraham “Bambol" Tolentino and former cyclist Rolando Hiso are contesting the PhilCycling presidency. Both officials took office after getting elected in two separate elections. The same case happened to the badminton association with Ramos disputing the highest post with Errol Chan. Earlier, the POC asked the two warring parties of PhilCycling and PBA to submit a position paper for the National Olympic Committee (NOC) for their case study in order to base their decision on which faction to choose as the legitimate leaders for cycling and badminton. “We wanted a fair decision to the two groups and the right decision is to order them to hold another election with voters who participated in the last election as the electorates," said POC spokesman Jose Romasanta. A total of 87 cycling clubs joined the 2003 election and a number of them have sided to either Mayor Tolentino and Hiso. “They both have officials who joined the last election. So the official who can get the majority from the said voters should be the legitimate leader to head the association," added Romasanta. Romasanta, however, warned that failure to follow the said POC directive will mean that they are forfeiting their right to be an official of their respective NSAs. “This is the same case with billiards. The other group didn’t show up so the recognition is automatically given to the group who joined the election," explained Romasanta. Arturo “Bong" Ilagan and Aristeo “Putch" Puyat are now recognized by POC as the president and chairman of the Billiards and Snooker Congress of the Philippines (BSCP) after Ernesto Fajardo’s group didn’t join the March 31 election ordered by the POC. Fajardo however is contesting the said decision and his group will also hold their own election on April 29. – GMANews.TV