EXPECT fireworks and some heated debate when the Philippine Olympic Committee holds its first general assembly meeting this year on Jan. 12 to vote whether to declare athletics chief Philip Ella Juico persona non grata due to the local track body’s row with pole vaulter Ernest John Obiena.
Although not explicit in the POC agenda of the blended meeting that will be held actual and online, POC President Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino announced last week that the vote on the issue would be taken up during the general assembly.
Tolentino issued the pronouncement after the POC Executive Board, by a vote of 12 for and two abstentions, decided to declare Juico, the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association President, “persona non grata” over his alleged harassment of Obiena, last week.
The athletics body launched an internal administrative inquiry after it emerged during a casual chat among Juico, World Athletics Vice President Sergey Bubka, and coach Vitaly Petrov in September that the Ukrainian mentor had not been paid his salary for the services rendered Obiena since 2018.
The money came from the financial assistance given by the Philippine Sports Commission directly and periodically to Obiena for the coach’s wages, which the athlete claimed had been fully paid in his online press conference with Petrov last Nov. 21.
In a television interview, Juico said the payments to the coach in his bank account in Formia, Italy were made in lump sums in early November from remittances coming from the Philippines and the United Arab Emirates, where Obiena’s American agent Jim Lafferty is based.
In another interview, the athletics chief, who skipped the inquiry conducted by the Ethics Committee, said he would oppose the POC board’s decision “all the way,” claiming the issue involving Obiena was an “internal matter” involving Patafa and the athlete.
Weightlifting chief Monico Puentevella last week issued a statement supporting Juico’s contention, saying that by declaring “one NSA President persona non grata for an internal squabble makes all NSA Presidents vulnerable to any conflict in the future.
“The Philippine Olympic Committee has no jurisdiction to enter into the internal affairs of the NSA. Much worse condemn or sanction an athlete or an official. The International Federation has,” Puentevella said.
Also to be discussed during the meeting is the status of the international competitions the POC intends to field athletes this year, including the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing scheduled this month, World Games in Birmingham, Alabama, Vietnam Southeast Asian Games, Asian Games, Asian Youth Games plus the preparations for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
The Patafa sent a letter to the PSC last Dec. 29 informing the government agency that it was formally withdrawing from the mediation effort in the controversy involving Obiena.
“On behalf of the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association Board of Directors, the Patafa Board of Directors respectfully withdraws its consent to submit to mediation as previously communicated in the later dated December 7, 2021,” Juico wrote PSC Chairman William “Butch” Ramirez.
“In as much as Patafa was willing to submit itself to the mediation initiated by the PSC in its announcement made on December 27, 2021 to discontinue with its mediation offer and the decision of Mr. Ernest John U. Obiena not to participate therein, compelled Patafa to withdraw its consent,” Juico said.
