POC chief says rally ill-timed, unwarranted

With the Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia just two months away, Philippine Olympic Committee president Celso Dayrit said the planned protest rally by athletes and coaches on Monday comes at a bad time for RP sports.

"It’s really regrettable that this rally has to happen especially at a time when our athletes are at the height of preparations for the SEAG," said Dayrit yesterday.

Dayrit, one of the sports leaders being asked to step down, said the athletes and coaches who are set to troop to Mendiola to push for reforms in RP sports are being "used by some sports personalities who have self-serving interests out to destabilize the POC."

"The root here is purely politics orchestrated by some people out to discredit the POC," said Dayrit.

"If they have some complaints against the POC, they should at least tell us and maybe ask for an audience with us. We are willing to sit down and find solutions to the problems they are perceiving," he added.

Aside from Dayrit, the reported 300 athletes and coaches joining the rally want all the POC Executive Council members and Philippine Sports Commission top leaders who are appointed by deposed president Joseph Estrada to also give up their posts. Commissioner Cynthia Carreon is an appointee of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Another commissioner, William Ramirez, who is speaking on behalf of the PSC, said a protest rally is justified only after all peaceful means have been exhausted.

"I’m a former activist myself and I respect one’s right to rally but they should first explore means to resolve their problems before going to the streets," Ramirez said.

Sources said the rally will start at 9 a.m. on Mendiola and wind up at the Rizal Memorial. It is allegedly one of the series of mass actions by certain sports officials out to discredit the POC and the PSC.

The sports sector has been hit by a number of controversies lately, the most prominent being the suspension dealt the Basketball Association of the Philippines by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA). – Joey Villar