In the short span of time that he has served as president of the Philippine Olympic Committee, Cavite solon Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino hopes that he has made an impact with in his accomplishments.
Since becoming president of the POC last year, Tolentino said he was able to work with other sports leaders in making the 30th Southeast Asian Games a resounding success and sought the needed assistance for national athletes and coaches in their time of need during the pandemic. He also vowed to unify all national sports associations if he is reelected.
“These are small matters, but they helped a lot,” said Tolentino during yesterday’s weekly online session of the Philippine Sportswriters Association on Zoom.
“If I win, my first move is to reach out to the NSAs (national sports associations) and unite sports and forget the politics,” said Tolentino.
“Hindi naman natin pinabayaan ang mga national athletes at coaches, lalo na ang ating bansa, doon sa pagtulong-tulong natin sa SEA Games, nu’ng naging overall champion tayo. Kahit mahigit one year lang tayo nag-serve,” added Tolentino, who is running for a full term as POC president in the coming polls this Friday.
“Nakita naman nila ang performance natin in that short stint (that I served),” said Tolentino, who finally heaved a sigh of relief after protests against his candidacy and five others under his ticket were turned down by the election committee of the weekend.
The POC chief hopes that when he is given a chance, he and members of his “Performance Team” will be able to execute their plans and programs that are aimed at making the POC a better organization.
Among the things that Tolentino and his group is working on is their plans to do sustainable activities, wherein programs would be developed so that the national sports associations can to reach out to potential corporate sponsors.