THE CEBU Weightlifting Association (CWA) said it is willing to be part of whichever national sports association (NSA) for weightlifting will be recognized by the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC).
Despite Hidilyn Diaz winning a silver medal in weightlifting in the 2016 Rio Olympics, the sport has been in doldrums in the country due to issues with its NSA.
This forced stakeholders in Cebu to form a group, the CWA, to help cultivate the sport.
The CWA, led by Felix Tiukinhoy, staged its own national students championships with Diaz serving as one of the guests. The group has also sent athletes to the Pre Youth and Youth International Weightlifting Championship in Bali Indonesia two weeks ago and will be sending another pair to represent the Philippines in the Universiade.
With regard to the ongoing issue, the CWA, in a press release, said it isn’t taking sides and will work with whichever NSA the POC will recognize.
Just recently, the POC turned down the application of Monico Puentevella to have the Philippine Weightlifting Association (PWA) replaced by the Samahang Weightlifting sa Pilipinas (SWP) as the NSA for the Olympic sport.
In a letter dated July 10, POC secretary-general Patrick Gregorio said that for the PWA to be de-listed, the move has to come from the concerned officials themselves and not the new organization that is planning to replace them.
“The new association that you represent — the Samahang Weightlifting sa Pilipinas — needs to comply with the membership requirements of the POC. In which case, the old Philippine Weightlifting Association would need to be de-listed as a member of the POC before the application of the new association can be entertained,” Gregorio said in the letter to Puentevella.
As for Puentevella’s request to have himself recognized as the president of the PWA, the letter said that the POC records still identifies Robert Dullano as the PWA president, Elbert Atillano as the vice-president, and Jesus Himotas as the secretary-general. /with reports from the Cesafi Media Bureau
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