Conflict of interest urges Vargas to step down from PHISGOC Foundation board

Ricky Vargas will still stay as PHISGOC's co-chair. Dennis Acosta (file photo)

By Ivan Saldajeno

TAGUIG--Philippine Olympic Committee president Ricky Vargas said on Monday that he had to step down from a concurrent post as a member of the Philippine SEA Games Organizing Committee Foundation board of trustees.

"I realized that I might be conflicted, so I resigned from one of the incorporators," Vargas, who bared that he was among the signatories that helped founded the said foundation, told reporters during a meeting between the PHISGOC, the POC, and the national sports associations at the Taguig City government's satellite office inside the SM Aura Tower.

The mentioning of the said foundation became one of the hot topics in the said "alignment meeting".

On the specific conflict that led to his resignation, Vargas explained, "I'm there to represent the Philippine Olympic Committee and its interest, and to be a member of the board of trustees of the PHISGOC Foundation would conflict with the reason I'm there."

He also said that POC secretary general Pato Gregorio also left from his own PHISGOC Foundation board of trustees post and that they submitted their resignation letters to PHISGOC executive director Tats Suzara as early as April 2.

However, Vargas clarified, "I stayed in PHISGOC as co-chairman."

The PHISGOC was established for the organization of the upcoming SEA Games that the Philippines will host later this year.

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