RENEGADE GROUP TO SEEK RECOGNITION FROM FEI

EAP defies POC, ousts Peping

By Julius Manicad

04/24/2009

A faction within the Equestrian Association of the Philippines (EAP) has formally elected Rep. Carissa Coscolluela as its new president, completely defying the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) mandate which prohibits the holding of election until 2012.

With 22 of the 40 voting members in attendance, Coscolluela clinched a four-year term along with Jones Lanza (vice president), Totti de Leon (corporate secretary and treasurer) and Mitos Belofsky (secretary general), leaving incumbent POC president Jose “Peping” Cojuangco without an association to represent in the local Olympic movement.

Apart from Coscolluela, Lanza, De Leon and Belofsky, Jose Ma. Montilla, Eric Tensuan and Olympian Toni Leviste were also given a seat in the seven-man EAP board of trustees, replacing Cojuangco’s allies Vittorio Barba, Theresa Hernandez and Mikee Cojuangco-Jaworski, who all snubbed the election notice sent by Coscolluela’s group.

Coscolluela, however, said only half of the job was done since they still have to work to gain the recognition of the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI), Asian Equestrian Federation (AEF) and, of course, the POC.

After all, “the POC is not just Cojuangco’s organization alone.”

“We did nothing wrong, we have the mandate of our (general) membership in holding this election,” Coscolluela yesterday said following a brief political exercise that was based on a petition letter signed by 25 of the 40 EAP members. “I hope Mr. Cojuangco will heed the call of the membership and submit himself to the will of the members.”

“Because certainly that is what I would do,” she added. “If I don’t have the mandate of the membership, then I have no business serving the membership, I have no business holding this position. If the people don’t want you, you shouldn’t be there.”

Coscolluela, a party-list representative for Buhay Party and the chef d’ equipe in the 2006 Doha Asian Games, said funding would not be a problem since she maintains a good relationship with private donors. And once they formally clinch the recognition of both their international and Asian federations, the support of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) would start coming in.

“We’ll continue to fund ourselves and look for private sponsors to help us in our financial endeavors.”

Cojuangco has been consistently claiming that the ongoing leadership crisis has something to do with the previous POC polls since Coscolluela is said to be a staunch supporter of losing presidential contender Arturo Macapagal. He said the election is not legitimate since it was not based on the mandate of the EAP executive board in which he has control.

He also questioned the list of the voting members after it bloated drastically over the past year. Belofsky, however, countered Cojuangco’s allegation, stressing that it was Cojuangco himself who opened the floodgates for more members in a meeting held last year.

POC spokesperson Joey Romasanta, for his part, claimed that Coscolluela’s move is geared to embarrass Cojuangco and not to improve the condition of the organization. The POC, he said, would definitely not give its recognition to Coscolluela’s group since their election should have been held in 2012 based on the ammended EAP constiution and by-laws.

Coscolluela, also, will not be invited when the POC holds its general assembly next month.

Back to top

For comments about this website:Webmaster@tribune.net.ph
The Daily Tribune © 2006