LONDON--Jose Mari Martinez's two-year stint as president of the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) is about to end after the PFF Board of Directors has forced him to take a leave of absence in running the country's football governing body.
This came after reports of arbitrary disbursements, extravagant expenses, missing funds and unauthorized obligations to third parties all done by Martinez, according to a national daily.
Iloilo Football Association president Mariano Araneta Jr., the newly-appointed PFF chairman of the finance committee, has ordered an audit on the PFF financial state to prove Martinez's wrong doing.
Funds which were given to the organization by the world's football governing body FIFA are missing.
Two Board members, Richard Montayre of Cebu and Dick Emperado of Negros Oriental, have also filed a case in court against Martinez for falsifying public documents in relation to designating a bank signatory.
For the longest period of PFF's existence, this is just the first that time the president of the Federation has been suspended.
This is also the first time that a president has been accused of mis-using the funds of the PFF.
According to the report of the national daily, PFF has received P16.8 million this year alone from Fifa. But the BOD was shocked when they found out that the PFF has only $203.08 in it's dollar account remaining.
The report stated that it appears that Martinez has helped himself with the PFF funds. He has withdrawn money to pay for his hospital bills, his credit card bills, medical insurance, cell phone bills, and membership payments for Valle Verde.
He has also made payments to G-World Services to produce a TV show and stage a fund-raising event that eventually lost money.
Former PFF president Johnny Romualdez never got a single cent as salary from the PFF and most of the time took only more or less P3,000 for his monthly expense. But when Martinez became president, he paid himself P25,000 a month.
PFF's monthly payroll has ballooned to P360,000 a month.
The association now has 18 employees at their newly constructed building in Makati. Most of those paid employees are doing nothing and are merely political appointees of Martinez.
The sins that Martinez have committed to the football community are too many that it would not fit in this column if I write them all.
If only the PFF is a public office, Martinez could have already been under the investigation and thrown at with tons of cases by the office of the ombudsman. But since the PFF is a private entity, then the cases slapped on him by the two BOD from Cebu and Negros Oriental will drag on.
If the ongoing audit would prove his guilt, the PFF BOD would file a case against him. Martinez, according to sources, has vowed to fight the cases and has refused to resign.
But he could not continue as PFF president as the BOD has the authority to get rid of him.
In fact, the BOD has already set its annual PFF congress in November to elect a new president. And when this comes, there will be fresh mandate and hopefully the PFF would be cleansed.
My only wish for the next president is to continue their cases against Martinez and make sure that they get back the missing money.
There are lots of things to be done to fix the PFF. The federation should first confirm it's members because more than one half of its current FA members are not active. Most of them only become active once there is an election.
Some of them were created politically to produce votes for candidates. I could count on my fingers those who are real active members. Active members should pay annual dues. How many of these FAs' pay annual dues?
Fixing the PFF is another story. As of the moment, the focus is on getting rid of Martinez. If I were Martinez, I should resign and live a private life. I would go and disappear where ever I want. Remember another PFF president Col. Lope Pascual? He just disappeared. Martinez could follow his example. GOD BLESS jackbiantan@yahoo.com
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There definitely is justifiable cause to oust Martinez and more than enough proof to finally nail him down but there are other important things to consider before we all start to be optimistic once again for Philippine Football.
ReplyDeleteBased on the PFF by-laws it will take 2/3 of the entire voting membership to affirm the ouster of Martinez. That simply means that Martinez will only need 11 or 12 votes out of 32 members to vote against his ouster and if Martinez has those numbers then the move to oust him will be unsuccessful. It is a number game!
It is not impossible for Martinez to get the right number for him to retain his position in PFF as it is common knowledge that many PFA’s Presidents are not genuinely concerned about Philippine Football but are there for personal gains and there are others who are easily bribed or can be bought. Martinez just came back from AFC and there are talks that he may have met with Hamman to ask for help and possibly financial assistance to buy support-----just like he did in the last Congress. There were no scheduled meetings in AFC last week that is why his trip was looked upon with suspicion.
So this is what we have to watch out for.
Another thing to consider is the POC. Whenever elections are held the standard procedure is that the National Sport Association, in this case the PFF, will request the POC to send a representative to witness the electoral process so the elected official will be recognized by the POC.
Many may not be aware that Martinez wife is related to the POC president. Martinez too played a significant role in the last POC election when his vote made it possible for Peping Cojuangco to sit for another term.
There is a very strong possibility that Martinez will find a way to make sure that POC does not send any representative to the PFF Congress this November which may complicate matters. It has been done before during the first attempt to oust Martinez.
If the POC does not send a representative for whatever reasons they may give in the future a leadership crisis may happen just like the cycling , equestrian , badminton and several other associations .
Hopefully this will be considered so the PFF Board can initiate steps or talks with POC to make them aware of the current issues of the PFF.
For the PFF November Congress the Board should consider inviting some media men to cover the event and witness the electoral process-----------------this will make it difficult if anyone plans any hanky-panky.
Why was he allowed to get away with so much in the first place. The Football Associations should have stepped in much earlier. They have to stop that mentality of looking the other way. The power should lie in the associations and not in the PFF president. If they took faster and stronger action, the next PFF president will think twice about pulling these kind of stunts. That job has not been headed by anyone who really has football in mind but just trapos who want to get as muh money as possible. When will we ever get someone serious? That Martinez, what a character. How many of us would trade accomplishments with him in footballing terms? Now he has shamed his name as this is what we will all remember him by. The only bright spot under the time he was president is the development of the national team spearheaded by people who he doesnt have control over. The man has no shame..no honor.
ReplyDeletei know its not nice to which someone ill... but i wish martinez died when he had a stroke. i hope he has a stroke again and become a vegetable.
ReplyDeleteJose Mari "Safe keeping" Martinez, is going to go down in history as a piece of shit in Philippine football.
ReplyDeletesince this has come to the open, who do you think would better qualify as PFF president?
ReplyDelete