POLE vaulter Ernest John Obiena threatened to quit yesterday unless the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association withdraws its probe and publicly apologizes over his alleged failure to turn over the salary of 85,000 euros to Ukrainian coach Vitaly Petrov since 2018.
“The only resolution to this now is a full and public withdrawal of the investigation and a full public apology of the authorities involved in this,” said an emotional Obiena, who appeared with Petrov in an online conference from Italy regarding the controversy.
“If this does not happen I will consider my other options including immediate retirement in the sport that I love in the Philippines and probably return to school,” said Yulo, who added he’s also thinking of filing legal action against the local amateur body.
“Since we are talking of slander and defamation of character. I have retained legal counsel.
I do intend to pursue this vigorously,” he said.
The country’s first Olympic qualifier was responding to published reports (not in Malaya-Business Insight) of Patafa’s demand letter, signed by Patafa President Philip Ella Juico, last Nov. 15 to return 85,000 euros in salaries meant for Petrov since 2018.
Obiena was given 10 days from receipt of the letter to refund the amount or face potential legal and other sanctions.
Petrov, the former mentor of world and Olympic champion Sergey Bubka, said he had sent Patafa a letter attesting that he had received the amount.
Obiena said he also reported the incident to the Philippine Olympic Committee, the International Olympic Committee and World Athletics for action.
“They (Patafa) de facto accused me of stealing money from Vitaly Petrov. It runs counter to any sense of justice or of being presumed innocent until proven guilty,” the 2019 Southeast Asian Games gold medalist said. “As I said if you want a textbook example to destroy an athlete, you are seeing it here and now.”
Because of the issue weighing him down, Yulo said “we cannot continue to operate under this situation. I am unable to focus and train properly with this hanging over my head.”
Juico declined to discuss the issue further, saying a Patafa investigating committee had been created to probe deeper into the controversy.
“We have an independent committee that is investigating the issue, which is the only just and proper thing to do,” said Juico, who also demurred in naming the committee members.
“We must follow due process before making any further decision.”
Athletics legal counsel Atty. Adrian Cabiles said the committee is hoping it would be able to resolve the issue “involving our very outstanding athlete.”
