Liao takes over as PNVF faces critical days ahead
Tonyboy Liao ushers in a new era in the Philippine National Volleyball Federation (PNVF) after being elected president of the national federation.
And his first important task will be to restore order to the Alas Pilipinas program after the women’s team continues to cram in its preparation for the 33rd Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Thailand next month.
Liao succeeded former president Tats Suzara after the PNVF elections and general assembly on Friday.
Dr. Arnel Hajan was appointed chairman. Yul Benosa was named vice president and Otie Camangian was named secretary general. Ricky Palou will serve as treasurer, while Roger Banzuela will be the federation’s auditor. The other board members are Charo Soriano, Fr. Vic Calvo, Michael Angelo Vargas, Sherwin Maganda, Danilo Cong-o, Edward Lee and Ma. Socorro Calleja.
Liao said the federation has already submitted a 14-strong final lineup in time for the September deadline.
But there are still questions as to whether that lineup will get enough preparation time after reports that the national squad hasn’t had a complete practice yet and that there have been days when as few as two players would train.
Liao named former national team captain Jia De Guzman, Angel Canino, Shaina Nitura, Eya Laure, Vanie Gandler, Bella Belen, Dell Palomata, Alleiah Malaluan, Leila Cruz and Dawn Macandili-Catindig as among those in the roster.
Even Brooke Van Sickle was part of that submitted list despite her ongoing transfer of federation process from USA Volleyball to PNVF.
Despite electing a new set of board members from 2025 to 2028, Liao said that they will discuss the upcoming SEA Games campaign of their national teams with the outgoing officials.
“They started it. It just so happened that we had elections,” Liao said in Filipino. “So we have to represent the PNVF.”
“We need to talk with them. What do we do now? We’re in charge. Of course, there will be a discussion—are we still going to run this, or will you? We’ll know once we talk.”
“We can’t just ask them to leave and say we’ll take care of things from here. They put the program together [and] … we will talk to them [to see] if they want to talk with us [then] we’ll discuss this.”
