The Board of Trustees of the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association has advised Olympic pole vaulter, Ernest John Obiena to submit to mediation at the invitation of the government, through the Philippine Sports Commission.
In a joint statement on behalf of the PATAFA Board of Trustees, PATAFA chairman, Deputy Speaker Congressman, 2nd district ofCagayan de Oro city, Rufus B. Rodriguez and Federation president, Dr. Philip Ella Juico, echoed the sentiments of the Board that “if Obiena wants to put order in his relationship with his own NSA and continue training and preparation with complete back up team and support uninterrupted by hearings and possible legal proceedings, he should seriously consider going into mediation.”
Some Board members, “He and not allow himself to be sucked into proceedings of highly doubtful legality and be manipulated by certain elements who simply want to take over the PATAFA with him as the means for “pole vaulting” into one of the most successful NSAs in the country and the governing body of the Athletics sport, one of two mandatory sports in any Olympic-type competition.
Rodriguez and Juico added that they realize “this young man of 26 with a whole career in front of him, is a stranger to and not familiar with serious legal proceedings that will require his time, to dig up critical documents and to appear in inquiries while resources he needs for his training, coach, support staff and accommodation are in serious jeopardy.”
Rodriguez and Juico appeared recently in a hearing of the House Committee on Youth and Sports Development which was convened to investigate the alleged harassment by Jujico and PATAFA of Obiena.
Juico provided a detailed presentation of the chronology of events and liquidation reports Obiena presented to the PSC, claiming that fees to his coach were paid during the period 2018 to 2021.
Petrov had, in his original signed complaint, denied on October 7, 2021 that he had been paid and that he had signed acknowledgment receipts.
Upon receiving, however, Euros 85,000 belatedly on November 4, 5 and 9, 2021 from non-PSC bank accounts but from accounts of Obiena himself, his mother, Jeanette and Obiena’s principal financial backer, American businessman James Lafferty, Petrov declared that he had been paid in full and provided documents of his receipt of the late payments.
The so-called late payments merely raised questions about Obiena’s liquidation reports from 2018 to 2021 that made it appear that Petrov’s fees had been paid and acknowledged by the coach as having been paid at that precise time.