Philippine Olympic body gears up for busy 2025

MANILA, Philippines — Newly reelected Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino will call to order the new set of members of the POC Executive Board on January 9 and after that, the first General Assembly of the new year will only be a week later on January 15.

“Work starts in earnest,” said Tolentino, adding 2025 will be capped by the 33rd Southeast Asian Games in December, where host Thailand is expected to leave no stone unturned to emerge overall champion.

“That will be a tough SEA Games, but I’m confident our athletes, our national sports associations will deliver in Thailand,” Tolentino said.

There are dozens of international competitions lined up in 2025 with the Ninth Asian Winter Games set February 7-14 in Harbin, China, and the postponed Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games set in Jeddah at a still to be determined dates serving as highlights.

Tolentino said he expects the trajectory of Philippine sports to continue pointing upward following the historic haul of two gold medals from Carlos Yulo in gymnastics and two bronzes in boxing from Nesthy Petecio and Aira Villegas at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

“It was one historic year in 2024 that raised the bar that high, making the POC’s mission and vision even more challenging,” Tolentino said. “But it wasn’t impossible and my trust and confidence over the NSAs and my ‘Working Team’ could boost our athletes to achieve higher goals.”

Tolentino and his entire “Working Team” were the runaway winners in last month’s POC elections — the PhilCycling head earned 45 votes that represented three-fourths of the 61 voting members of the organization.

The “Working Team” — first vice president Al Panlilio (basketball), second vice-president Richard Gomez (modern pentathlon), treasurer Dr. Raul Canlas (surfing), auditor Don Caringal (volleyball) and board members Leonora Escollante (canoe-kayak-dragon boat), Ferdie Agustin (jiu-jitsu), Alvin Aguilar (wrestling), Alexander Sulit (judo) and Leah Gonzalez (fencing) — also got overwhelming votes of confidence from the NSAs.

Tolentino stressed that the template of success Yulo and Tokyo 2020 weightlifting gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo utilized, will be enhanced to keep the streak going for Philippine sports.

“The template’s been tried, tested and proven twice over,” he said. “For this coming year, the ingredients are there, making the path to the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 clearer and achievable.”