Equestrian Association secretary-general stays, but wushu chief out?

MANILA, Philippines - Equestrian Association of the Philippines president Jose Cojuangco Jr. yesterday said he has no plans of replacing secretary-general Mitos Belofsky contrary to email messages making the rounds.

“I was not told and there was no indication that it is happening,” said POC spokesman Joey Romasanta speaking in behalf of Cojuangco, also the POC president.

In press statements sent by a group calling itself Equestrian Pilipinas, Cojuangco is allegedly contemplating on relieving Belofsky of her duties since she was allegedly supportive of another group, headed by Party List Representative Carissa Coscolluela and Toni Leviste, which is pushing for an election.

“Cojuangco pinned the blame on Belofsky for allegedly erroneously sending out a notice of meeting and election to EAP members, which subsequently ignited a challenge to Cojuangco’s leadership,” the statement said..

“While I was on holiday in Japan a few weeks ago, I received an email dated March 14 from Mikee Cojuangco-Jaworski saying she had done all the paperwork for the upcoming elections,” Belofsky was quoted as saying.

“She took it upon herself to prepare the documents that I had been previously tasked to work on.

“On March 16, I received a phone call from Mikee saying that based on the amendments of the by-laws, an election was no longer necessary, and instead, we would just have a party,” Belofsky added.

Cojuangco, however, denied these allegations and maintained no election will be held on March 31.

“Let the constitution and by-laws speak for itself, there is no need for an election until 2012,” he said.

Coscolluela is set to challenge Cojuangco for the EAP presidency in the proposed March 31 polls.

In other development, the Wushu Federation of the Philippines elected Tai Lian as its president, replacing Julian Camacho. Yang Hua Hong was elected chairman.

But Camacho insisted he is still the legitimate wushu head because he is still recognized by the POC.

“As far as POC is concerned, I’m still the legitimate president. I already came up with a reply to this,” Camacho said.   – Joey Villar