Media highlights Philippine leadership intrigues

Philippine football 'godfather', Jose Vito Borromeo, is reportedly behind moves to oust Johnny Romualdez as president of the Philippine Football Federation a press statement "handcarried by Romualdez" to the editorial offices of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, claims. It said PFF sources reported of a recent gathering, hosted by Borromeo, among select provincial association presidents to hear out Asian Football Confederation official Cristy Ramos’ "gripes against the PFF".

"Ramos, the former president of both the Philippine Olympic Committee and the national women’s football federation, blasted the PFF last week for its failure to send the Philippine women’s Under-19 team to a world qualifying tournament in Thailand next month. Ramos said the non-participation was a result of the 'PFF’s negligence' in not being able to forward the Philippines’ entry form to the tournament on time," the newspaper recorded.

According to the Inquirer's Musong R. Castillo, Borromeo admitted in a telephone interview that he indeed hosted the gathering. But he said that the meeting did not discuss anything about Romualdez’s possible ouster. He said the group talked about how to make Romualdez “a proper president.”

“We don’t want to kick him [Romualdez] out, we want to make him become a proper president,” said Borromeo, also the president of the National Capital Region Football Association. "Ayaw namin ng gulo [we don’t want trouble]. We just want to say our piece.”

Romualdez said Laguna’s Arturo Pacificador, Cebu’s Jonathan Maximo and Rizal’s Emigdio Tanjuatco III were the football association presidents present during the meeting. The statement said Pacificador took the opportunity to also “gripe about the PFF,” and that Maximo, a member of the PFF board, is “known to always play both sides.” Romualdez said Borromeo’s group intends to use the PFF Congress scheduled 25 February in Iloilo as a political arena.

The statement also claimed that Borromeo had "reneged" on his pledge to release P1.5 million for the Philippine team in the 23rd Southeast Asian Games last month after Romualdez "refused to heed his (Borromeo’s) advise to bring in [trainer Juan] Cutillas and to train [the team] in Baguio, instead of China." PFF competitions director Pablito Araneta said that Romualdez still has the numbers and any move to unseat him "will only serve to further unite his allies for the PFF election scheduled for 2007."