Peping respects poll result but . . .

The freshly installed leadership of the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) is putting together a transition team to ease the turnover of duties from the old to the new administration, as the country prepares to host the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.

It was the first order of business for new POC president Ricky Vargas, who took over from Jose Cojuangco Jr. after winning a court-ordered election on Friday.

“The first thing we did right after the election is to put a transition team together,” Vargas said in an interview on DZMM’s "Fastbreak" sports program on Saturday.

“That late evening (after the elections), we started working immediately to liaise with the current administration.”

Vargas said the process will give them a baseline of what the POC currently has “on the finances, on whatever things we have to know.”

He also said that he has already made initial talks with Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) chairman Butch Ramirez and Foreign Affair Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano regarding the things needed to be done for hosting the Games.

“Nag-reach out ako kay chairman Ramirez, I will see him and pay my respects and he's very open to tell us what the plans are,” said Vargas.

“I'm also reaching out to Secretary Cayetano to understand what they've already done. They're moving very fast with the facilities, training and the programs.”

Meanwhile, Cojuangco said he respects the result of the election.

“For me, the majority has spoken,” Cojuangco said in a report posted on Spin.ph.

But the former POC president said the incident could set a bad precedent as far as the POC autonomy is concerned.

“If the courts have that power, we are finished. It's just that I don’t think it’s one person can decide and interpret the meaning of the provision of the bylaws and constitution," he said.

“If it’s a group that did it, (let’s say) Supreme Court, baka puwede pa pero I don’t know of any instance that happened to us lalo na’t isa pang kinakatakot ko na we are obliged by the IOC constitution to defend the autonomy and not succumb to pressures of religion, monetary or any other.”

(For more sports coverage, visit the ABS-CBN Sports website.)