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Thursday, March 28, 2024

PSC tells Obiena, Patafa, POC: Stop this mad issue

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The Philippine Sports Commission on Wednesday took a firmer stance on the controversy surrounding pole vaulter Ernest John Obiena and his mother federation the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association.

Ernest John Obiena’s reinstatement is one of the demands by the PSC to the athletics’ federation.

In a statement released by its board, the PSC, the government sports body that funds all national athletes, laid down its demands.

“For EJ to immediately finish his liquidation of accounts so that we can continue to support him; for the PATAFA to reconsider their declaration of dropping EJ from their rolls, provide him an appeal mechanism and not to execute their decision immediately; and for the Philippine Olympic Committee to bridge the two parties as the mother organization of both and reconsider their decision of declaring (Patafa president) Mr. (Philip) Juico persona non-grata on the premise of promoting peace in elite sports,” the PSC statement read.

“We demand for the PATAFA, EJ, the POC and all the parties who wish to stoke the fire of this mad issue to stop. You have all publicly recognized the PSC and asked us to help resolve the issue, please listen to us on this simple request. Stop issuing public statements and come to the table with us to discuss this matter,” the PSC continued.

The conflict began when the PATAFA discovered in a casual conversation with pole vault great and World Athletics official Sergey Bubka that Obiena’s coach Vitaliy Petrov has not been getting his salary from 2018 to 2021.

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The athletics’ body was stunned of the discovery, because Obiena had been submitting his liquidation reports which bore the signature of his coach, prompting the PATAFA to send a letter to the pole vaulter, asking him to explain where the money went.

Thinking that his own mother federation was out to harass him, Obiena instead held a zoom conference saying that his liquidation documents were in order. He later admitted paying his coach in full only last November, 2021 and saying “paying late is not a crime.”

Before the situation got out of hand, the PSC stepped in and offered its hand to mediate between Obiena and the Patafa. But the pole vaulter declined and instead submitted a complaint letter to the POC, which ruled on his behalf by declaring athletics’ president Juico persona non grata.

A few days after the POC decision, the Patafa came out with its own resolution of dropping Obiena from the national team, while planning to file a criminal complaint of estafa against the elite athlete, now ranked no. 3 in the world.

“PATAFA’s dropping of EJ from the athletics national team without any chance given for the athlete to appeal was a sad development. Due process requires proper disposition of issues and cases whether in government or private venues, including in administrative proceedings,” said the PSC.

The government sports body also vowed to “implement stricter guidelines on granting of financial assistances to NSAs and will require their submission of a disciplinary code or protocol in case anything like this happens in their sport. We shall also be requiring them to include the policy on arbitration within their by-laws as mandated under RA 11232. Failure to comply with these two policies by the end of the month shall constrain the PSC Board to review and reconsider granting of assistances to all non-complying NSAs.”

“We have said this before and we are saying this again. Let us resolve this like sportsmen,” the PSC pleaded to the concerned parties.

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