New Philippines NOC President Campaigns for Gold

(ATR) Money for medals will be part of the strategy of Ricky Vargas, the new president of the Philippines National Olympic Committee.

In his first speech to the general assembly last week, Vargas disclosed his proposal to award bonuses in a quest to help the Philippines win its first Olympic gold medal.

Already there are six figure awards for Filipino medalists. But in Rio, only one medal was awarded, a weightlifting silver.

Boxing, a great tradition in the Philippines, with stars like Manny Pacquiao, disappointed in the last Olympics without a single medal. Vargas is president of the national federation.

Vargas is counting on boxing as one of eight sports to deliver improvements during the Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia this August.

"We have established specific objectives, which we intend to achieve with the appropriate support from public and private agencies," he said. "Our goal is to improve our ranking of 22nd position in general. I'm also committing cash incentives," Vargas told the POC assembly.

Apart from the law that ensures rewards for the podium finishers, Vargas announced that gold medalists would earn an additional 2 million pesos ($38,220) in cash bonuses, while the silver and bronze medalists would get P500,000 ($9,580) and P300,000 ($5,748), respectively.

The move is similar to the incentive plan recently adopted by sports authorities in Trinidad and Tobago for their medalists.

Already in Port of Spain Keshorn Walcott has been recognized for his world record javelin throw at the Olympic Games in London. Winning the second gold medal for the country, Walcott had a day named as a national holiday. He was also awarded $150,000, a luxury apartment and 2,000 square meters of land.

The Filipinos intend, at least, to ascend to 15th place and for that they need five gold medals according to the experts.

The POC president says he hopes to find more support from private companies to fund the athlete bonuses. Businessman Manny V. Pangilinan is among those supporting the program. He was the founder of the Philippine Basketball Association and its first president between 2007 and 2016.

With this plan the new president seemed to successfully seal this assembly of reconciliation for the Philippine Olympic Committee. The POC has just emerged from a serious internal crisis that began in 2016 with the nullification of its elections.

In November of that year NOC president Jose "Peping" Cojuangco Jr., ran and won without opposition for a fourth term as president. Vargas, who challenged Cojuangco, was disqualified, leading to a year of legal battles.

A court ordered the POC to hold elections on February 23, 2018 with Vargas running again with vice presidential candidate Abraham Tolentino, president of the cycling federation.

Cojuangco and supporters said the court involvement was a violation of the autonomy of the POC by the government.

A letter from IOC deputy director general Peré Miró, expressed disappointment the NOC dispute had to be resolved by a court.

"It is very unfortunate to note that disputes related to internal affairs, including elections, that should have been resolved by and within of their NOC, they were presented to the ordinary courts," he said.

Vargas and Tolentino were elected President and Vice President, by decision of the POC Assembly.

Cojuangco, whose daughter Mikaela C. Jaworski has been a member of the IOC since 2013, did not hide her displeasure with this verdict. There was speculation in the corridors of the POC that it would appeal to the IOC.

But in a move to build bridges, Vargas offered the ex-president Cojuangco to be president of the Constitutional Amendment Commission of the POC. Other supporters of the defeated incumbent in were also named to seats in the new NOC leadership.

The new president is said to be seeking harmony and funding to lift Filipino sport. The country will have the responsibility of organizing the Games of Southeast Asia in 2019.

Vargas will complete the two years of the current term with his election this year. He is expected to seek a full four year term in 2020, a year in which the Philippines will once again dream of the first Olympic gold medal in its history.

Reported by Miguel Hernandez.