WORLD No. 3 pole vaulter Ernest John “EJ” Obiena confirmed on Monday his withdrawal from the Philippine Sports Commission’s (PSC) effort to mediate his crisis with the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (Patafa).
“When you speak of mediation, it is a peaceful resolution,” Obiena told BusinessMirror via internet call on Monday from Formia, Italy, where he’s back training after recovering from a knee surgery. “So you need to trust one another and there’s not a single trace of threat.”
“The moment that you have a threat that I’m going to do this if you don’t get into mediation or you’re telling the other party that you’re still going to file a case, that’s already a sign of threat,” Obiena, 26, said.
The Asian men’s pole vault record holder accused the Patafa in his latest statement of “manipulating the facts to mislead the public” and blasted his mother national sports association for attacking his mother, Jeanette, “by using friends, relatives and fellow athletes to make a bad picture of him regarding the issue.”
“It is a recipe for failure to enter into mediation with one party is in bad faith; Patafa was in bad faith this whole time as they signed the mediation with their true intention to still pursue the filing of a baseless criminal case of estafa against me,” Obiena said in his statement.
He added: “Patafa has said [they] want a peaceful resolution, but [their] actions prove this as a lie. You cannot have peace while pointing a gun at the other guy’s head, and say ‘let’s have a peaceful resolution.’ This is the exact opposite of good faith mediation.”
Obiena thanked PSC Chairman William Ramirez for working hard as a peacemaker.
“I believe in mediation as a tool for peace and have full trust and confidence in the integrity of Chairman Butch Ramirez,” he said. “But it seems that Patafa is only using mediation as a means to silence me and to keep the truth hidden. [They] always trumpet that I should go to mediation if I have nothing to hide. I have nothing to hide and that is the reason why I do not want to go to confidential mediation.”
“Darkness is the home of the oppressor. I want the truth out in public, the same public where I was judged as guilty without due process by Mr. Juico [Patafa president Philip Ella Juico],” he added.
Juico, contracted for comment by BusinessMirror, said: “Let’s just wait for the announcement and declaration of PSC chairman on the official status of the mediation that PSC organized.”
LIQUIDATION DOCUMENTS SUBMITTED
ERNEST JOHN “EJ” OBIENA said he has submitted pertinent documents on his liquidation report on the salary of his Ukranian coach Vitaly Petrov before the weekend, adding these were received by the Philippine Sports Commission’s (PSC) Accounting Department.
Obiena’s liquidation report included the P1.7 million paid to Petrov for the period September 2020 to August 2021. He said Petrov also furnished the PSC a copy of his service contract with the Patafa.
Obiena said the Patafa has refused to submit a copy of Petrov’s contract despite numerous demands and requests from PSC and himself since November last year.
“And as of January 21, 2022, all my pending liquidation with the PSC is done. It’s closed,” Obiena said.
His liquidation report, however, will still be subject to a post-audit scrutiny by the Commission on Audit.
EJ BACK ON HIS FEET AND TRAINING
THE shoo-in for the men’s pole vault gold medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games in September is back in training at the world pole vault training center in Formia, Italy, after undergoing surgery to repair a meniscal tear in his right knee on January 11 at the Southwest German Center for Sports Traumatology in Baden Wurttemberg, Germany.
“I’ve already been jumping and vaulting,” Ernest John “EJ” Obiena told BusinessMirror also on Monday.
Because of the wonders of modern sports medicine, it tool only a week for Obiena to get back on his feet.
The Init Indoor Meeting in Karlsruhe is on his schedule but the pride of Tondo doubts if he would kick off his 2022 indoor campaign in Germany. He’s expected to fly to Nur Sultan in Kazakhstan though for the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships from February 11 to 13.
Obiena set the Asian men’s record with a gold medal winning jump of 5.93 meters at the Golden Roof Challenge last September in Innsbruck, Austria. He broke the previous 5.92-meter continental record set by Kazakhstan’s Igor Potapovich in a meet in Dijon, France, in 1992.