POC electoral commission chief to resolve protests ahead of polls

THE Philippine Olympic Committee’s (POC) electoral commission vowed to resolve several protests filed by both the two parties running against each other before the body’s polls set Nov. 29.

“We’re expected to have rulings on all these protests soon after we deliberate,” said POC electoral commission chief Teodoro Kalaw IV in yesterday’s meeting with the two groups seeking POC posts in the forthcoming quadrennial polls.

“I am confident we can get unanimous agreement on the four cases, but I can’t guarantee when we will be issuing, but definitely it will be before the Nov. 29 elections,” he added.

The cases Mr. Kalaw was referring to included the one filed by wrestling’s Alvin Aguilar against POC presidential aspirant Chito Loyzaga of baseball alleging the latter did not meet the active membership requirement on their general assembly attendances.

Another one involved squash’s Robert Bachmann’s case against incumbent POC chief Abraham Tolentino regarding the latter’s alleged lack of transparency on financial reports.

Both Mr. Loyzaga and Mr. Tolentino are running against each other for the top POC position.

Also being asked to be resolved were the qualification protests against the candidacies of kurash’s Rommel Miranda and gymnastics Myrna Lao, who are both running seats in the executive board.

The other members of the independent electoral body are Philippine Sports Commission board member Bong Coo and Fr. Nap Encarnacion.

“Nov. 24 is the deadline for all summations of all respective parties to be filed so that we can take it all into account,” said Mr. Kalaw, who is on his second tour of duty with the same post. — Joey Villar