THE Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association will fully cooperate with the Philippine Sports Commission in resolving the association’s row with pole vaulter Ernest John Obiena, according to Patafa President Philip Ella Juico.
“Whatever Butch wants, sunod kami,” Juico said yesterday in another interview with the ANC Headstart hosted by Karen Davila following his dialog with PSC Chairman Butch Ramirez last Wednesday over the controversy.
“I told Chairman Butch that what we want to do to is get clarity on the issue because that is exactly why we’re here, to assist in the development of sports as an NGO (non-government organization) while exercising our social responsibility,” he said.
Juico said he had brought the matter to Ramirez’s attention after talking with World Athletics Vice President Sergey Bubka and coach Vitaly Petrov last September over the delay of Petrov’s salaries coursed through Obiena since 2018.
Bubka, who became a world and Olympic champion largely through the mentoring of his Ukrainian compatriot Petrov, signed an affidavit in the Ukraine last Oct. 21 and certified by the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice that his former mentor had not been paid by Obiena since 2018 until last September.
Juico said Petrov was ultimately paid his salary last Nov. 4, 5 and 9 from “other sources.”
The money for Petrov’s wages came from the funds provided by the PSC coursed directly to Obiena.
“Several days after I received this report from Petrov and Bubka, I contacted Chairman Ramirez and our Patafa Chairman Rep. Rufus Rodriguez and I told them I had this problem.
“Ramirez said that since you are an NSA, you have your own internal procedure, you investigate it, and we will investigate and we will follow you after you have investigated.
We are coming up with our own findings, which is what we are doing now.”
Juico said what he found disturbing was the statement issued by the PSC last Wednesday that it would cut financial support to Patafa in the event the issue went unresolved.
“I said to myself that it was like shooting the messenger, but nonetheless we will still fully cooperate with the PSC despite the fact that there is that unusual thing like that,” Juico said. “But it will be the athletes who will suffer if you deny the federation the funding.”
Juico declined to discuss any further issue involving Obiena since the PSC Administrative Committee was in the process of investigating it.
“We are looking at the administrative angle in this issue and how we can do things better,” he said.
He also refused to say what he expects of the case and Obiena’s fate until the Administrative Committee has completed its investigation, which will be submitted to the Patafa board for deliberation “because we are a collegial body.”
