Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Victorico Vargas is reportedly sensing an ouster plot against him.

Just warming up on the post he won through court-ordered elections on 23 February 2018, Vargas is said to be feeling the heat from his board and the general membership for his unpopular actions, including his release of P7.2 million to the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee (Phisgoc) reportedly without consent.

The fund release allegedly lacked the POC Board's approval and its recipient is an independent and private group after it transformed into what is now called the Phisgoc Foundation so it could receive financial support and sponsorships when Malacañang was yet to recognize the original Phisgoc.

It is an impeachable offense, said a *Daily Tribune* source.

An earlier impeachment attempt against Vargas late last year did not fly.

### No safety

Vargas was protected by a POC law which bars the ouster of its president within a year of his election.

The group which planned to kick him out had wanted Philippine National Shooting Association (PNSA) president Chavit Singson to replace him. Its card was through *viva voce* — the voice vote it believed would get from an overwhelming majority.

It did not and it failed badly. Not even the media picked up the story despite Singson's presence in the conference he hosted in his yacht at the Manila Bay.

**The *Tribune* source claimed inexperience on the part of Vargas' team which did not check whether the former POC leadership of Jose "Peping" Cojuangco had entered into an agreement with the Phisgoc before he took over.**

But Vargas' learning curve in the POC was too arched his critics claimed he could not have prepared for the enormous task of the SEA Games hosting.

The POC, another *Tribune* source confirmed, owns the rights to the SEA Games hosting. It was the POC which was authorized by the powerful SEA Games Federation Council to run and manage the biennial event's fourth visit to the Philippines.

In all three times when Manila hosted the SEA Games, it was always the POC which was on top of the management of the 1981, 1991 and 2005 Games, the last of which was a momentous sporting achievement when the Philippines won the overall crown for the first and only time.

But the POC's general membership laments Vargas' decision to step aside and allow the Phisgoc Foundation to call the shots in organizing the Games.

The Phisgoc is also problematic. It failed to secure the P7.5 billion it had asked government to produce for a very grand SEA Games hosting.

Lawmakers balked at the amount. The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) said it was too much. It had successfully hosted the 2005 edition of the games for way less than P1 billion.

The Senate also said the Phisgoc could not receive government money.

### Deal overlooked?

It does not have a formal agreement or appointment from the POC — as overall in charge of the SEA Games, to relegate the hosting chores to the Phisgoc.

Vargas also failed to execute the most basic requirement to legitimize Phisgoc's operation. The *Tribune* source claimed inexperience on the part of Vargas' team which did not check whether the former POC leadership of Jose "Peping" Cojuangco had entered into an agreement with the Phisgoc before he took over.

Before it became the Phisgoc (and later the Phisgoc Foundation) though, the first group to take responsibility over the hosting was led by Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, president of Arnis Philippines Inc.

He quit when the Marawi terror siege forced government to rethink priorities and dropped the Games. But former Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano stepped in and revived the hosting.

Cayetano's group charted the Games' plans and set the P7.5-billion budget. But Cayetano resigned his DFA post to seek an elective position.

**In all three times when Manila hosted the SEA Games, it was always the POC which was on top of the management of the 1981, 1991 and 2005 Games.**

As a private citizen, he could not receive that kind of funding from Malacañang. That was what the senators said when they slashed the budget to P5 billion and handed it straight to the PSC, the government's sports funding agency, for proper and lawful disbursement.

Without funding, the POC "loaned" the Phisgoc with P7.2 million to host the first SEA Games Federation meeting in Taguig last year.

What was described by the *Tribune* source as "an extravagant affair," however, reportedly failed to impress the regional guests. A few dropped by the party Vargas had organized for his boss and benefactor Manny V. Pangilinan.

Majority of them went to see Cojuangco on that same night at his posh Makati village residence.

Vargas was not oblivious to these incidents. And early this week, a number of *Tribune* sources claimed he had called and accosted some of his former supporters over the so-called ouster move against him.

POC rules opened Vargas to impeachment after he had served his first year last February. But he could not be ousted a year before he completes the four-year term he had inherited from Cojuangco. POC elections are held during Olympic year cycles. The next is 2020.

But one of his critics said "Why impeach him when all these problems are imploding on the POC? The SEA Games, his management of the POC, everything. Let him stay and face them as a true leader."