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Friday, March 29, 2024

More on the Obiena-PATAFA tussle

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More on the Obiena-PATAFA tussle“We should all think of our country first.”

 

 

Instead of the feud being settled by now, it is in fact worsening. It is to the interest of the country, and all parties involved, that the issue is settled quickly. Other countries are watching us with utter bewilderment and disbelief as to why we insist on continuing with this spectacle. It is totally unnecessary.

By the looks of it, it is doubtful whether pole vaulter EJ Obiena and PATAFA will be able to bury the hatchet even if both parties eventually come into some sort of an agreement. This is because “may lamat na” – as they say in the dialect. Obiena has retained a lawyer to pursue his complaint and PATAFA is hell bent on investigating the athlete. The latest is that PATAFA is investigating Obiena in what was described as a code of conduct violation. First, it was embezzlement, then this was changed to falsification. The code of conduct violation is the third. We do not know what code was violated because PATAFA did not specify.

A code of conduct violation is similar to Article of War 97 if one is in the military. It covers a wide range of actions and includes anything that might bring discredit to the service. I don’t know what particular code Obiena violated or if there is even such a written code of conduct for athletes, but if this is the charge being thrown at him, he will almost certainly be found guilty.

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In the latest press release, Obiena was accused of not reporting the fees that he has been receiving while competing to PATAFA and PCS. This could easily be construed as conduct prejudicial by PATAFA. There seems to be a lot more to this feud than meets the eye and the public is being kept from it.

What exactly does PATAFA want? To show who is the boss? Why is PATAFA so anxious to prove something against its own star athlete? One of the things insinuated by PATAFA was that Obiena must have spent his initial cash advance of 85,000 euros intended as salary for Petrov because the money Petrov was eventually paid came from other sources.

There was in fact, a little overpayment. With regard to the improper liquidation of the cash advance, Obiena should not get all the blame. Assigning the task to him was totally ill advised and he had to do it from half a world away without any assistance while training and competing at the same time.

PATAFA president Philip Juico in one of his TV interviews said that a lot of people are commenting without knowing or understanding what the problem is all about. This may be partly true but the issue is not exactly rocket science that the public cannot understand. When Obiena’s coach Vitaly Petrov said that he was tricked by PATAFA into issuing statements against Obiena, Philip Juico issued a cryptic rebuttal that “Petrov knows the whole truth.”

But what is this truth? Perhaps he should just come out and say it. After all, the feud is all over social media already. Otherwise, this will just be contributing to more speculations and conspiracy theories. PATAFA should just summon Obiena home to settle the issue quietly once and for all instead of this social media war which is damaging Philippine sports. I assume that Obiena is still under PATAFA’s jurisdiction unless he is not anymore, due to the stoppage of his monthly stipend since August.

We must realize that the Paris Olympics is just about 18 months away. By spring, prospective Olympians will begin training for the games. All parties must therefore attempt to settle this problem. But if the bridges have already been burned, we have to find other ways to support Obiena’s team. Maybe business tycoon Ricky Razon can add Obiena and his team to the stable of Filipino athletes that he is already supporting in order that the country not miss the chance of medaling in the field of athletics in the next Olympics. It is no guarantee of course, but Obiena being the sixth in the world, has a very realistic chance to be the first Filipino and Southeast Asian to do it.

If PATAFA does not allow this due to pride or any other reason, Obiena can still compete in the Olympics as an individual athlete as done by the Russian athletes in the Tokyo Olympics. They competed as individuals without representing their country. I am sure however, that no sane person in this country would want that to happen. But it could if both sides will harden their positions instead of softening up.

Let’s hope that the people involved can simmer down a bit for the sake of the country. We should all think of our country first.

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