THE PERILS of a frontrunner; almost everything can be taken as a test. But one test in particular is almost as character-revealing for Sen. Benigno ?Noynoy? Aquino as the resolution of the various Hacienda Luisita controversies. We mean the petty partisanship of the president of the Philippine Olympic Committee, Jose ?Peping? Cojuangco.

Cojuangco, of course, is the late President Corazon Aquino?s younger brother, who served as representative of Tarlac and peerless broker of power in Congress during the Aquino years. He is also POC president until 2012.

And there lies the problem. By many accounts, and not just those of his rivals, Cojuangco has reinvented the POC as a personal fiefdom. His decisions have been motivated, not so much by the national interest, but by his political interests. And both the country and its hard-working athletes have ended up used, manipulated.

We have already written about the tragedy that befell road racing champion Maritess Bitbit, willed by Cojuangco himself. It is a shocking case of sports injustice; more than that, it is a stunning example of Cojuangco?s confusion over the true national interest.

Because of the hostile relations that exist between Cojuangco and his rival, Harry Angping, president of the Philippine Sports Commission, both the country?s preparations for the 25th Southeast Asian Games last month in Laos and the conduct of the national campaign itself were vexed with political problems. Out of many sorry cases, the worst was Cojuangco?s treatment of Bitbit. The rider was the only Filipino athlete recognized and licensed by the International Cycling Federation to compete in Vientiane. All the other Filipino cyclists had the misfortune to belong to another Filipino cycling association, the one aligned with Cojuangco?and the one the International Cycling Federation (known by its French acronym UCI) did not recognize.

Faced with this dilemma (something Philippine sports officials had already known about even before the start of the Games), Cojuangco proceeded to define the national interest in terms of his own, personal, political concerns.

The POC asked Bitbit to withdraw from the Games.

One of the region?s best, the rider was in good position to win at least one gold medal, and perhaps as many as three. But at a time when the Philippines was dreading what sports fans call a shellacking in the biennial regional competition, the POC defined one athlete?s withdrawal and precious ?team unity? among the cyclists as being in the country?s highest interests.

This meant protecting the 12 other Filipino riders and their sponsors from the embarrassment of being locked out of the Games; if they can?t compete, then no one can. This meant placing pressure on Bitbit to give way; not to do so, she was told in so many Orwellian words, would be an act of selfishness. Above all, this meant prioritizing Cojuangco?s own interests by putting a Potemkin face on the proceedings; he and his allies pretended that everything was fine on the cycling front.

Which brings us to Noynoy Aquino?s wholly unexpected candidacy. He seeks to offer the best the Filipino is capable of giving: a noble life, like his sainted mother?s; even life itself, like his martyred father. Somehow we cannot imagine the young Aquino learning to define the national interest in his own, personal terms.

But failure to imagine is one thing; a failure to respond is another. The very principles of Aquino?s campaign compel him, not only to distance himself from his genial and generous uncle, but to attack the decision-making that led to his uncle?s manipulation of Bitbit.

Cojuangco, after all, is not an unknown factor; he has been very much a part of the political scene, from the mid-1980s and then again in the last few years. Fairly or not, he also represents the ?other side? of the legacy of both the Aquino presidency and the Edsa revolution: the dynastic politics; the easy, entrenched cronyism; the pettiness of perspective.

Here, in the politicizing of the country?s participation in the Southeast Asian Games, is the clearest example yet of Cojuangco as POC president holding the national interest hostage. Will a second Aquino presidency hold him to account, or give him all the wiggle room he needs?