AFTER keeping nearly everyone in suspense, pole vaulter Ernest John Obiena announced yesterday that he is declining the mediation process being brokered by the Philippine Sports Commission to settle his issues with the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association.
“It is with great regret that I am forced to officially withdraw from the PSC offer of mediation due to the bad faith of (Patafa President) Mr. (Philip Ella) Juico and Patafa,” Obiena said in a statement posted on his official Facebook account.
Last Jan. 5, PSC Chairman William “Butch” Ramirez had implored Obiena and the Patafa to agree to mediation involving the Italy-based pole vaulter’s liquidation of the support in PSC funds given to him directly for his training and participation from 2018 to 2021.
While the Patafa board immediately agreed to the process, Obiena said he would consult his lawyers, only to announce that he is no longer interested in doing so.
The financial support given by the PSC to Obiena included the salaries of the Italy-based athlete’s coach, Vitaly Petrov, which the local track body discovered in its private and internal inquiry had been largely unpaid until August 2021.
Appearing in a Nov. 21 online press conference, Obiena and Petrov denied the allegations, although Juico disclosed in a television interview that huge lump sums were transferred thrice to the coach’s account in Italy in November in an effort to fulfill Obiena’s financial obligations to the coach.
“As of January 21, 2022 all my pending liquidation with the PSC is done. It’s closed,” Obiena said.
“I thank PSC Chairman Butch Ramirez for his hard work as a peacemaker. I believe in mediation as a tool for peace and have full trust and confidence in the integrity of Chairman Butch Ramirez,” Obiena added. “Unfortunately, it seems that Patafa is only using mediation as means to silence me and to keep the truth hidden.”
A PSC insider said the board would meet today to tackle Obiena’s decision to decline its peacemaking efforts with the help of the Philippine Dispute Resolution Center, Inc. and come up with a resolution on the matter.
“It is a recipe for failure to enter into mediation with (sic) one party is in (sic) BAD Faith. Patafa was in bad faith this whole time as they signed the mediation with their true intention to still pursue the filing of a baseless criminal case of estafa against me,” Obiena said.
“Patafa has said they want a peaceful resolution, but their actions prove this is a lie. You cannot have peace while pointing a gun at the other guy’s head, and say ‘let’s have a peaceful resolution.’ This is the exact opposite of good faith mediation,” he said
Obiena said “it is now irrefutable with the new data emerging that Patafa manipulated the facts to mislead the public” in explaining why he chose not to participate in the mediation process.
Although he has yet to read Obiena’s statement, Juico hinted he would file a case of cyber libel against the athlete due to his “unfounded and baseless” allegations.
Juico said the Patafa would await the decision of the PSC board.
Based on the fact-finding report of its administrative inquiry, the Patafa board decided to drop Obiena from the national team, file a case of estafa against him, terminate Petrov’s services as Obiena’s coach, and file an ethics complaint against the Ukrainian mentor with the world athletics body.
Juico said they had deferred these actions in deference to Ramirez’s efforts to arrive at an amicable resolution to the thorny issue that has gripped local sports for over two months now.
“We will await what the PSC board decides on the matter given the present situation before coming up with our own decision,” Juico said.
