Parañaque City Mayor Eric Olivarez was elected president of a reformed Philippine Tennis Association (Philta) in Friday’s International Tennis Federation (ITF)-authorized election supervised by the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC).

With the election of the new Philta’s board of trustees done—and its executive officials elected—what’s left now is for the POC to report the successful proceedings that would pave the way for the ITF lifting its suspension of the national association for the sport that has drawn for almost three years.

“It’s done, the election was held and there’s a new set of officers,” POC president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino said after the elections held at the Century Park Hotel in Manila.

“We’re going to report this to the ITF to at finally lift the suspension on Philta,” said Tolentino, who was overwhelmed by the huge turnouts of members from the country’s 13 regions.

“We didn’t expect this huge attendance,” he said.

A total of 158 clubs all over the country had filed for memberships with 119 of them getting approval from the election committee headed by POC secretary-general Atty. Wharton Chan with deputy legal Atty. Billy Sumagui and deputy secretary-general Carl Sambrano as members.

Also elected were Olongapo City mayor Rolen Paulino as vice president, Calabarzon’s Gerardo Alcala as treasurer and Mimaropa’s Theodore Jose Matta as internal auditor.

The other members of the board voted independently by their respective regions were Bicol’s Franzes Khu Camacho,Western Visayas’s Theodore Dy, Ilocos Region’s Elmaerwin Sibucao, Mindanao’s Gilbert Paylado, Cordillera Autonomous Region’s Dickerson Laruan, Cagayan Valley’s Fernando Silapan, Eastern Visayas’s Joile Mondragon, Central Visayas’s Jean Henri Lhuiller, Caraga’s Dyan Castillejo and April Toledo for Gender Equity.