Manila (BusinessMirror) - I’m all for unification and transparency,” said Mari Martinez in the Philippine Sportswriters’ Association Forum last week, where he was formally introduced as the heir to Johnny Romualdez as president of the Philippine Football Federation (PFF).

Unification? Transparency? So, how transparent were the recent PFF elections?

There were 30 heads of the PFF present (out of the 32) and during the voting, one abstained. The results, as everyone knows by now turned out 15-14, in favor of Martinez, a national player back in the 1970s. His rival for the association’s top post was the PFF’s (and now former) publicist Ed Formoso. There were other candidates as well, but they all dropped out of the race before the elections.