February 17th, 12:15am February 16th, 7:10pm Julius ManicadHold My Beer

When Ricky Vargas took over the presidency of the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) last year, one of the challenges thrown his way was how to fix the karatedo association.

There are two contending parties in play here.

One is the Philippine Karate Federation-NSA (PKF-NSA) headed by POC first vice president Joey Romasanta and the other is the Karate Pilipinas (KP) manned by Ricky Lim, a former national team member and the son of late long-time karate boss Manuel “Pocholo” Veguillas.

The Peping Cojuangco-led POC used to recognize Romasanta’s karate body.

But at the end of 2017, Cojuangco suddenly became unpopular among members of his executive board, and Romasanta shifted support to Vargas, who scored a legal victory after the Pasig Regional Trial Court ordered the POC to hold a reelection between him and Cojuangco.

Romasanta may or may not admit it, but he quietly played a major role in Vargas’ rise to power by delivering the swing votes that led to his victory.

Lim, on the other hand, is an old hand in karate.

Although he wasn’t really active in the federation before, he had been helping the community in whatever way he can as his father was regarded as a luminary of the sport. A golden moment came when seven prominent karatekas rushed to the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) to complain against the mismanagement of their allowance by PKF-NSA secretary-general and top Romasanta deputy Raymund Lee Reyes.

The PSC launched an investigation and the National Bureau of Investigation brought Reyes to court.

With no federation to run to, the national team members reached out to Lim, who immediately assembled a new federation so that the country’s participation in major international competitions will not be hampered. KP was born.

With Lim at the helm after getting a mandate that would last until the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, KP easily secured the support of the PSC as well as the Asian Karate Federation and the World Karate Federation. KP also fulfilled the duties left by the PKF-NSA, which suddenly found itself in trouble due to Reyes’ court cases, PSC’s withdrawal of support and Romasanta’s plans of stepping down.

Suddenly, we have two karate bodies: The PKF-NSA and the KP.

Again, PKF-NSA doesn’t have recognition from PSC and the Asian and world bodies, but it has the recognition of the POC.

On the other hand, KP is not a POC member, but is already functioning like a national sport association after securing the backing of the PSC and its international federation (IF).

POC membership committee chairman Robert Bachmann was tasked to untie the knot, which created confusion and division among various karate clubs all over the country.

Bachmann said the only way to resolve the crisis was to have an open and unified election among members of both PKF-NSA and KP.

Since KP has the PSC and IF recognitions, Bachmann suggested that PKF-NSA withdraws its POC membership to pave the way for the election. Expulsion, he said, is not an option as it would need three-fourths vote from the POC general assembly before a decision could be made.

On the surface, Bachmann’s solution sounds fair. The idea of having the presidents of two warring bodies coming together for a unified election seems like the same roadmap used by the POC used in resolving the leadership row in basketball in 2006.

First, KP has the support of both the PSC and IF. One of Vargas’ first pronouncements shortly after assuming power is that he is inclined to recognize federations who have the support of their IF.

Second, KP is recognized by the PSC and has been tasked to organize karate-related activities. Its referees were also tapped to preside PSC-organized tourneys such as the Philippine National Games and Batang Pinoy. So it’s really functioning like a true NSA — only without POC recognition.

Also, PKF-NSA appears dormant. It has no government support, its executive council is inactive, the status of its members is uncertain and its future is in limbo.

With that, it’s pretty obvious that PKF-NSA needs KP more. Its members need KP to enjoy IF recognition as well as government support.

On the contrary, KP can survive even without POC recognition. As I’ve said, it is already functioning like an NSA. It already has government support and IF recognition. So why join POC in the first place? It doesn’t make sense.

I think instead of staging an open and unified election, Bachmann should recommend to the POC executive board to just recognize KP for the meantime and ask the PKF-NSA members to join.

Then, when Lim’s term ends in 2020, that’s the time for them to hold a unified election.

It doesn’t take rocket science to fix karate.

All it takes is political will and clean and honest intention that is free from political pressure.

And I’m sure a fair and idealistic sport leader like Bachmann can do it.