Patafa chief Philip Juico, left, and EJ Obiena
The Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (Patafa) administrative committee has recommended the filing of a criminal charge against Olympian pole vaulter EJ Obiena and in the process, drop him from the national team in connection to the alleged fund misuse of government funds intended for his foreign coach.
In a press conference Tuesday, Jan. 4, the committee revealed the list of recommendations which include filing a criminal complaint for Estafa against Obiena and a complaint against Ukrainian coach Vitaly Petrov before World Athletics for “violation of the Integrity Code of Conduct”, and also declaring Obiena’s consultant Jim Lafferty as persona non grata to the Patafa.
The committee also recommended the termination of Petrov as Patafa coach.
Based on the copy of the report forwarded to the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) and the Commission on Audit, the committee concluded “Obiena misappropriated the amount of 61,026.80 euros (around P3.6 million) which were released to him by the Patafa/PSC as payment for coaching fee of Mr. Petrov but which were not paid as of August 2021 and Jeanette Obiena misappropriated the amount of P624,116.76 she claimed from the PSC under pretext that it is a reimbursement of the coaching fee paid to Mr. Petrov for the months of January to March 2019.”
Jeanette Obiena, mother of EJ, was a former Patafa auditor.
Acting on the recommendation, however, will have to take some time as far as Patafa chief Philip Juico is concerned.
“The recommendations had just been made public today, so we will have to sit down and work out the mechanics and the procedures. People will have to be notified, arrangements have to be made, so it is not an instant thing that we can do,” he said.
“Filing of cases will require documentation and all sorts of things, so we have to abide by all of this. It will soon be implemented.”
In a detailed report released to the media, the committee showed the signed statements of Petrov dated Oct. 4 and 7 saying that he has not received his coaching fees from 2018 to 2021.
It also showed the detailed amount of funds released to Obiena by Patafa and PSC from 2018 to 2020 including bank receipts, as well as the timeline of events beginning Nov. 12, 2021 where Juico called for an emergency board meeting.
The meeting was to inform the board that Juico received communications from Sergey Bubka, Vice President of World Athletics and President of the Ukrainian National Olympic Committee, as well as Petrov on the alleged non-payment of coaching fees.
Juico said Patafa has exhausted all efforts to settle the matter with Obiena and even agreed to the PSC’s offer of mediation.
“But he chose to go elsewhere,” Juico said.
Obiena has maintained his innocence in the matter, arguing that it was a form of harassment. Petrov has also admitted to already having received his coaching fees, but reports showed it was paid only late last year.
Obiena said he has elevated his case to the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
With the committee recommending that Obiena be dropped out of the national team, the country is set to lose its top pole vaulter who holds the national and Asian record with a world ranking of No. 6.
His 5.93-meter feat last season put him tied at No. 3 in last year’s best pole vault performances.
Obiena was also the only Asian to make it to the pole vault final at the Tokyo Olympics where he finished tied for 11th place.