By Jerome Lagunzad
Oozing with confidence after getting the green light from new Philippine Olympic Committee leadership, the newly-formed United Polo Players Association (UPPA) has set a lofty goal for next year’s Southeast Asian Games in Manila.
“We vowed to give three of four gold medals in our sport. That’s our mission,” said UPPA chairman and Rep. Mikee Romero of 1Pacmam Party-list recently. “But if we can add three more events then we can win at least win four to six golds.”
He may sound ambitious, but Romero is getting that supreme confidence from the support being given by newly-elected POC president Ricky Vargas and POC chairman Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino.
Expected to join the event are several rich and famous of the region, including the royalties of Brunei.
But the game’s venue, more than the composition of the national team, appears to be the organizers’ more pressing concern.
“That’s our challenge now. But first, the UPPA is very thankful to the POC leadership for recognizing our association. We will do everything we can to make our hosting truly a memorable one,” said Romero, who previously led the cycling and shooting associations.
UPPA is headed by Coco Garcia, son of former Philippine Sports Commission chairman Richie Garcia, with Hollywood film producer Jun Juban as secretary-general, Tonio Veloso as executive-general and Jun Eusebio as vice chairman.
The projected events, according to Garcia, are the men’s 2-4 goals, men’s 5-8 goals, men’s seniors and women’s 0-2 goal.
Garcia and Juban also intend to stage at least three indoor events.
For the event to push through, Juban said they need to rehabilitate the Clark Air Base and Bulacan polo fields, put up horse stables that can accommodate at least 200 horses, and build an indoor polo arena in Clark.
At least R50 million, according to Garcia is needed to satisfy all the requirements.
“We have only 18 months to prepare that’s why we are doing our best to get all the support we can from the private and government sectors,” said Juban.