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PHILIPPINE Olympic Committee president Jose
“Peping” Cojuangco will seek a second term as head of the
country’s Olympic-governing body next year if national sports
association heads will ask him to.
“If the NSAs would still want
me, kung sa tingin nila kaya ko pa,” said the younger brother of
former President Aquino.
“Basta ako, I just want to
continue what I feel can still be done. Ngayon, kung makakagulo
naman ako, then I won’t do it,” said the younger brother of
former President Corazon Aquino.
Cojuangco, also the president of
the Equestrian Federation of the Philippines, replaced Celso Dayrit
as POC head in 2004.
With still a year left before the
POC election, Cojuangco said it is too early to talk about his plan
of seeking a second term or the legacy of his three-year old
administration.
He said there are still a lot
more work to be done, especially with only six months left before
the 24th Southeast Asian Games in Thailand and the 2008 Beijing
Olympics.
“Malayo pa ang election. Hindi
natin kailangan mamulitika dito,” Cojuangco said.
The POC president counts the
construction of a permanent training facility in Clark Field in
Pampanga and the organization of Philippine sports program as the
two major goals he wants to see in place while he’s still in
office.
“Actually for me, it isn’t
about winning in the SEA Games or getting the country’s first
Olympic gold. Ang sa akin, kung puwedeng ihulma o i-organize ang
sports program dito para magtuluy-tuloy na, gagawin ko‘yun.
“For me, that’s my ambition,
to organize sports in the Philippines. Once you do that, everything
follows.”
The planned quartering of
would-be athlete-candidates to the RP delegation in the SEA Games,
Cojuangco said, should serve as a prelude to finally realize his
vision of having a modern training facility just outside of Metro
Manila.
Cojuangco had earlier identified
the possible site of the new sports facility within the Sacobia
Development Area just outside of Clark Development Zone, just within
the boundary of Tarlac in Bamban.
“Well once makita ng karamihan
that [the quartering of athletes] really works, then I guess it
would be easy to persuade people the need to really have this
training facility that will house and cater to the needs of the
Filipino athletes,” said Cojuangco, who lost his bid for
governorship of Tarlac in the last national elections.
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