50 candidates named for PSC top position

MANILA, Philippines - Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, the soon-to-be-proclaimed President, will have a very long list to look at and a lot of names to choose from when he tries to fill in the blanks in the Philippine Sports Commission.

A ranking sports official who asked not to be identified said there are close to 50 names in the list of candidates, most of them very familiar ones, to occupy the posts of PSC chairman and four commissioners.

“Fifty names,” he said.

Harry Angping, current chief of the government sports agency, said he would file his resignation on June 30, the day Aquino is sworn in as the new President, but stated that he won’t abandon his post until he is replaced.

A change in the PSC leadership comes with every change of administration. However, there have been instances when the PSC chairman had to stay on a little longer because of a delay in the PSC appointments.

Angping said he would only do what he’s supposed to do – stay on if needed and step down once told.

Besides, the country is in the thick of preparations for the Guangzhou Asian Games in November, and there are those who believe that changing horses midstream may affect the preparations.

But Philippine Olympic Committee spokesperson Jose Romasanta said the fact that there are many candidates should make it easier for Aquino to make a choice, and that’s if he still hasn’t made a choice.

“There’s a lot of qualified men,” said Romasanta, who recalled an incident when the late Corazon C. Aquino, when she was still President, asked why there are so many persons interested in the top PSC post.

“Ano ba ang meron dyan?” Romasanta, a very close ally of the Cojuangcos, and former director of Project Gintong Alay, recalled the late President, as asking. He said he could only shrug his shoulders then.

Romasanta said he doesn’t see any delay in the appointments, and that if they are to come before the Asian Games, then it’s much better to do it as soon as possible, while the Games are six months away.

Romasanta happens to be one of the candidates, and in fact his name was on top of the list when 21 members of the POC expanded board did a secret balloting on their choice as the next PSC chief.

Philip Ella Juico, former Agrarian Reforms secretary and ex-PSC chairman, is also a hot candidate for the post of chairman. He is said to be the choice of those close to Aquino or Aquino himself, not those from within the POC.

Jose Cojuangco, the POC president and uncle of the 50-year-old Aquino, is suggesting that whoever gets appointed as PSC chairman is someone who already knows the ins and outs of Philippine sports.

“Someone who already has an idea of the plans and programs in place, and someone who doesn’t need to undergo the getting-to-know-you process with his fellow sports officials, the athletes as well,” he said.

Either Romasanta or Juico should be a very acceptable choice.

Cojuangco said the POC balloting that took place two weeks ago is intended to set a precedent that the local Olympic body will have a say in the selection of the members of the PSC board.

The POC chief said he has already pushed this idea to Congress as an amendment to Republic Act 6847, the law that created the PSC, the government’s funding arm in sports, in 1990 or 20 years ago.

“It is always the President’s prerogative to select. But if we can have commissioners who are recommended by the POC, then it should ensure understanding between the PSC and the POC,” Cojuangco said.

“Our President may or may not listen to our recommendation but what’s important is to have a precedent that the POC can recommend. So, from now on, the future President will listen to the POC,” he explained.

Cojuangco said having the POC recommendations sit as commissioners in the PSC will be a good start.

“I think two persons (as commissioners) would be enough for them to be able to explain to the others all the plans of the POC,” he said.