PATAFA versus Obiena: No winner

By Charles Lim

We thought we can hold our heads high in the sporting world with the performances of our Olympians to end this historical year of Filipino sports. Wrong.  It is, therefore, most infuriating to witness an ace athlete of ours being condemned openly by his own sports association in recent weeks.

Philippine Athletics Track & Field Association (PATAFA) has accused Asia’s best and world’s top 10 ranking pole vaulter, Filipino EJ Obiena of, first,  misusing funds and later, of falsifying his liquidation reports in a shocking open public manner which does not speak well of the organization and the people running it.

What we cannot comprehend is why an internal issue such as this was thrown open to the International Track and Field Federation (ITFF) and the whole wide world. Shame. Here at home, the Philippine Senate, Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) and the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) want to carry out their respective investigations.

The Senate, with no clear understanding, suddenly declared it will suspend funding to the PSC. First to cry foul, was Monico Puentebella the president of the Philippine Weightlifting Association and long-time Filipino sports doyen for many decades. “It’s like burning a house to catch a rat.” quipped Monico. His pride, Olympic gold medalist, Hadilyn Diaz will, of course, be affected if the 2022 PSC budget is withheld.

Talking about burning, I do not believe enough bridges were burnt by PATAFA to resolve the issue with Obiena internally. Being an internationally acclaimed athlete, Obiena would fully understand the repercussions of messing around with sports associations and funds for his coach, the fame pole vaulter Vitaly. Petrov.

Washing your dirty linen in public to condemn your prized athlete is what PATA virtually did in the eyes of many. From initial reports from the media, Obiena may have committed an offense or overlooked some reporting procedures. Unless PATAFA has intentions of destroying Obiena’s promising career as an athlete, nobody could see any good coming out of this accusation.

Being alone thousands of miles away in Italy, training hard with his coach whom PATAFA claimed has not been paid (on time), Obiena found two big allies wanting to help solve the issue.  Ironically, it was Petrov, his coach who first emerged to support Obiena by stating he has been fully paid.

Another of Obiena’s mentors and trainers, Jim Lafferty even went further to claim that Obiena is one of the hottest Asian athletes. In a recent television interview on One Sport, Lafferty said, “It’s no secret in today’s world that a number of countries are looking at this situation and laughing uncontrollably at how the Philippine is driving away a world class athlete that they can offer a passport to.”

However, Lafferty claims that Obiena has turned down many offers before as he simply loves the Philippines and had not given it much thought. So far.

PSC, through its chairman, William Ramirez has offered to mediate but I have my apprehensions if the decision may go against PATAFA.  It will be accused of government interference in sports, leading to IOC sanctions which, at worst, could lead to suspension of POC and from all forthcoming games – Asian Games in China and SEA Games in Vietnam in 2022.

PATAFA should show true leadership qualities and great magnanimity by resolving this issue with an athlete under their CARE. Obiena should, too, accept his faults and vault on. The issue that it has been blown to such great heights so unnecessarily should quickly be a thing of the past. Accusing Obiena of moral issues is one thing, not talking to him about is another.

I could quote many verses from the Bible, but I would rather not. Philip Juico and EJ Obiena are good people, although generations apart. Both have love of country and sports at heart. I will be most disappointed if they do not resolve this issue amicably. The loser will be Philippine sports with these two players making a mockery of the country on a world stage.

On the topic of funding, I am surprised that salaries of international coaches and trainers are first relayed to the athletes who are tasked to do the disbursements. Aren’t coaches and trainers in contracts with the NSAs or PSC and not with the athletes?

It also brings us to wonder whatever happened to the hundreds of millions of unliquidated funds disbursed to NSAs under the previous POC and PSC administrations. Perhaps the PSC can make public the NSAs with unliquidated funds. Be interesting to know the NSAs at fault.

Obiena’s threat of retiring from Philippine sports is real. He knows he has the sympathy of the sporting world and countries will be throwing passports at him. We do not wish him to take the path of chess Grandmaster, Wesley So who has turned American and soon lady golfer, Yuka Saso will turn Japanese in two years’ time. We are glad Manny Pacquiao never left the Philippines and now wants to be president.

Let’s pray for a peaceful and happy ending to this tiff in the spirit of Christmas.