Former Philippine Olympic Committee president Ricky Vargas and chairman Abraham Tolentino pulled off an impressive move when they decided to drop their earlier plan of attending the POC special board meeting on Monday. Aside from giving board members a chance to untangle the lingering leadership dispute, the decision of Vargas and Tolentino also means that they have already committed to a peaceful and orderly staging of special elections. original incorporators of Phisgoc. It also appears that Cayetano had a hand in the formation of this body as members of his inner circle in Ramon Suzara, Donaldo Caringal, Dexter Estacio and Monica Anne Mitra were also listed as incorporators despite being complete outsiders to the local Olympic family. The purposes of Phisgoc’s existence were also shocking. Aside from wanting to organize the upcoming SEA Games, the body also aims to take charge in other future international tournaments that the country will host. It also wants to manage fund from sponsorships and subsidies as well as receive and disburse all income derived from the staging of the Games — functions that are supposedly reserved for the POC. Since the validity of the registration is up to 50 years, it means that Phisgoc will be in-charge of organizing the Games until 2068. Wow! The POC board members questioned Vargas. They gave him five working days to reply. He didn’t answer. After a couple of weeks, he called for a general assembly and vowed to explain everything to the board and other national sports associations. Obviously, everybody woke up early to listen to his explanation. The purposes of Phisgoc’s existence were also shocking. But the excitement turned into dismay as Vargas delivered a speech laced with expletives aimed at his fellow board members. As if that wasn’t enough, he fired some board members from their respective committees, including SEA Games chief of mission Monsour del Rosario and deputy chief of mission Charlie Ho. Finally, the IOC stepped in. IOC director for National Olympic Committee Relations Jerome Polvey called Vargas to tell him to meet his board members and explain to them what really happened. After all, everything can be discussed in a proper forum. Vargas did exactly what Polvey said. He attended the meeting, but before it could formally start, he tendered his irrevocable resignation. That’s the problem confronting the POC right now. If not for the formation of Phisgoc, which people behind it tried their best to hide from the POC for almost eight months, the POC executive board would still remain solid and very busy in its preparation for the SEA Games. The athletes would also not be demoralized and the SEA Games fever is already red-hot with billboards, streamers and posters scattered all over the metro. But it is what it is. The best thing to do now is to hold hands and fix this mess. This is the perfect opportunity to stay together. After all, the International Olympic Committee and Olympic Council of Asia had spoken and recognized the validity of their resignations. But how did we get here? How did the executive council that was solid just a year ago transform into two warring factions battling for legitimacy and leadership? For me, there’s only one culprit: The creation of the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee (Phisgoc) Foundation Inc. Phisgoc’s formation raised a lot of questions. When former POC chief Jose “Peping” Cojuangco was at the helm in 2017, he appointed Taguig Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano to serve as chairman of the SEA Games organizing committee. Yes, it was just a mere organizing body, an ad hoc committee that reports directly to the POC executive council. But when Cojuangco was booted out of power in February of last year, the organizing body was incorporated into Phisgoc. Suddenly, it was Phisgoc that was running the show. POC board members were shock to learn that Phisgoc developed the Games’ official logo, mascot and theme without even consulting them. It also started its fund-raising drive and was directly coordinating with the Philippine Sports Commission for funding. Vargas and former POC secretary general Patrick Gregorio started to act strange, too. Their first order of business was to strip POC treasurer Julian Camacho of power by assigning themselves as signatories to the checks being issued by the Olympic council. The POC board meetings suddenly became very seldom and a couple of “no-quorums” were declared. Everything made sense last March. The POC board unearthed Phisgoc’s Article of Incorporation that was filed before the Securities and Exchange Commission in July of last year. It was found out that Vargas, Gregorio, POC communications director Ed Picson and former POC chairman Tom Carrasco were