Trillanes reelected TATAP head

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV was reelected president of the Table Tennis Association of the Philippines (TATAP) in elections held last Sunday at the UP Hotel in Diliman, Quezon City in compliance with its Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)-registered constitution and by-laws.

Aside from Trillanes, who represented the PNP Table Tennis Association, also elected were Jacinto Omila (ARMM) as TATAP chairman, Jose Ortalla Jr. as vice president, Oscar Santelices (UP), board secretary; Eddie Tadea (Region 9), and Jessica Honoridez (Region 7).

Making up the TATAP board are Trillanes, Omila, Ortalla, Santelices, Tadea, Honoridez, Charlie Lim (FCTT), Nilo Pineda (Region 3) and Dario Hernane (Region 10).

“We held our elections last Sunday to comply with our SEC-registered constitution and by-laws, which requires us to have the TATAP polls on the first day of April coinciding with our annual general assembly and the start of our national championships,” Santelices said.

“Based on our charter, we had to follow our schedule on elections or the SEC could have penalized us on a technicality,” added Santelices, who was a former TATAP secretary general under ex-presidents Victor Valbuena and Senior Supt. Cesar Hawthorne Binag.

He noted that 11 out of 14 regional presidents and four out of seven “national institution” presidents attended   the TATAP annual general assembly meeting and voted during the polls.

In a statement, Trillanes, who is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Sports, said the association abided by the instructions of Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) to follow its charter in the holding of elections “which is what we exactly did.”

“The majority of the TATAP members have spoken and we pray that the POC will honor our mandate,” the senator said.

TATAP national championship tournament director Ortalla said that over 50 teams and 400 players are vying in the four-day competition, including national players Richard Gonzales and Rodel Valle, who won a bronze medal in the men’s doubles of last year’s Indonesia Southeast Asian Games.