Warring cycling leaders agree to end dispute

Due to lack of quorum, the Philippine Amateur Cycling Association General Assembly was called off yesterday but still produced some kind of a development when Joaqui Preysler and Ponciano Regalado, locked up in a tight leadership dispute, agreed to settle the issue once and for all in another meeting set Jan. 13.

Only three of 16 members of the PACA board of directors – Ernesto dela Paz of Marikina, Fernando Briones of Pangasinan and Ranulfo Despalo of Zamboanga – showed up at the Orchid Garden suites in Malate where Preysler had hoped for the ratification of last January’s meeting where he claims to have been elected president.

Regalado, recently sworn in as the PACA officer-in-charge by vice president for Visayas Emmanuel Bayot, claims that no election ever took place last January, meaning Preysler has no right to the presidency which was left vacant following the death of long-time PACA president Francisco Almeda in 1998.

Preysler and Regalado, meeting for the first time since the controversy erupted late last month, agreed on the holding of another General Assembly on Jan. 13 which, they said, could lead to the solution of the leadership problem. They said they will make sure that all PACA officials will attend.

The agreement between Preysler and Regalado was witnessed by Atty. Ding Cruz, the Union Cycliste International representative to the Philippines. Also present were Almeda’s widow Amelita and daughter Lori who both called for "unity within the association for the good of Philippine cycling."

Another key official who did not show up, aside from Bayot, was national team head coach Bart Flores who, however, sent word that he decided not to attend the meeting so as not to drag the cyclists into the controversy. "We in the national team want to stay neutral. Let us not drag the team into this problem," he said.

Preysler, who only needs the ratification of the minutes of last January’s meeting to prove that he is the duly-elected president of the cycling group, said: "If they want a new election, then let’s do it. I was nominated and elected president by the group so if I will ever changed, it must be the group that will do it, not a single person."

Philippine Olympic Committee president Celso Dayrit is out of the country but had recently said that all Preysler needs to do to keep the presidency is to disprove the allegations by Regalado and Bayot that no election took place January this year. "It’s that simple," Dayrit said.

Meanwhile, Brig. Gen. (ret) Manuel Ribo was elected president of the Wrestling Association of the Philippines yesterday also at the Orchid Gardens suite. Ribo takes over the presidency formerly held by Col. (ret) Manuel Espejo, who was in turn elected chairman.