By MARK REY MONTEJO
As expected, Leyte 4th District Rep. Richard Gomez, in a privilege speech on Tuesday, Jan. 27, denounced the current leadership of the fencing association, accusing them of “bullying … and abuse of power” and calling for the creation of a law to protect athletes and penalize erring officials.
The former president and now board member of Philippine Fencing Association (PFA) claimed that current fencing chief Rene Gacuma and national team coach AmatCanlas had “violated so many rules” in both of the PFA and the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC).
“I acknowledge the concerns regarding how I responded to Mr. Gacuma’s interaction with me, but let me take this opportunity to explain my side and expose the truth,” said Gomez.
“Tayo mga Pilipino ay likas na mapagpasensya. Ngunit, kapag may mali, hindi dapat pinapalampas. Kapag may abuso, hindi dapat pinagtatakpan,” he added.
“What the Philippine Fencing Association, or the PFA, under the leadership of its president, Mr. Rene Gacuma, and its national head coach, Mr. Ronaldo ‘Amat’ Canlas, did to Ms. AlexaLarrazabal on December 15, 2025, was not the first case of bullying an athlete and abuse of power inflicted on Filipino fencers. This was far from an isolated case.”
According to Gomez, Gacuma and Canlas replaced ranked No.1 AlexaLarrazabal with No. 3 HannieAbella in the women’s individual epee lineup which the 59-year-old solon stressed as a dishonor to the Fencing 205 Handbook.
The PFA stated that Larrazabal had committed unauthorized absences in the team’ training in the last few months before the biennial meet on Thai soil and also failure to submit required documents including her visa.
“There were multiple cases of favoritism, bullying, abuse of fencers by a coach and conflicts of interest where officials allegedly used their authority to advance their private or business interests and exert undue control over clubs, competitions and athletes’ preparation,” Gomez
But Gomez’s speech is expected to open a can of worms since those problems even happened during his time as president of the association. Gomez was president of the PFA from 2016 to 2023 before he was replaced by Gacuma.
According to the fencing community, the officials who Gomez insinuated to have engaged in “conflicts of interest” were also key officials during his time as president of the association.
The biggest controversy during Gomez’s presidency was the removal of Maxine Esteban from the national team in early 2023 over absences even though the former Ateneo standout had approved medical exemption following an ACL and PCL injury that prevented her from competing in required qualifiers.
The removal prompted Esteban to switch sporting nationality to the Ivory Coast and that paved the way for her successful qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Esteban’s traumatic removal from the PH team led her to join hands with Olympic gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz and pole vault ace EJ Obiena in a mission to help and protect Filipino athletes under House Bill 4175.
