In late 2021, the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (PATAFA), led by President Philip Juico, initiated a dispute with Filipino pole vaulter EJ Obiena involving the liquidation of finances related to the salary of Obiena's coach Vitaliy Petrov.

The dispute became public in November 2021 when the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that PATAFA demanded Obiena return financial assistance funds meant for Petrov, accusing the pole vaulter of falsifying liquidation reports and embezzlement. The accusation was strongly disputed by Obiena and Petrov.

The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) has repeatedly attempted to arrange mediation for the two parties involved and the PSC even signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Philippine Dispute Resolution Center (PDRC). However Obiena has declined mediation stating PATAFA is acting in bad faith. Obiena also noted that mediation is confidential and he would like the facts of the case to become public.

The Philippine Olympic Committee and its general assembly members after a full vote have declared Juico as persona non grata officially withdrawing its recognition of the PATAFA president due to evidence presented to its ethics committee involving Juico's behavior before and during the dispute. Evidence included that Juico had colluded to create untruthful statements. PATAFA responded by recommending the expulsion of Obiena from the national training pool.

Obiena hired the firm PricewaterhouseCoopers to verify the accounting and bank details involving Petrov and Obiena has submitted this liquidation report directly to the PSC, claiming it exonerates him. The Commission on Audit COA and the PSC are still reviewing Obiena's financial documents. On January 27, 2022, COA stated they scrutinized Obiena's financial reports and have found nothing irregular so far. On March 31, 2022, COA officially cleared Obiena of any wrongdoing.

Due Process

In any athlete NSA dispute due process should be followed. PATAFA's By-laws do not explicitly state its dispute resolution mechanism for eligibility issues. However, as PATAFA is an IAAF Member, PATAFA must abide by the rules of the IAAF. Under the IAAF Rules on Disputes and Disciplinary Proceedings, disputes between athletes and their NSAs must be submitted to an impartial and fair hearing body, with the rights of the athlete respected at all times.

Under the IAAF rule 60 Disputes and Disciplinary Proceedings:

In the Obiena case it is unclear if the IAAF procedures of due process were followed. PATAFA stated that investigations were conducted by its Administrative Committee who then submitted a fact-finding Report to the PATAFA Board. Commentators questioned whether PATAFA's committee is an “impartial and fair hearing body”.

Background

Obiena began training with coach Petrov in 2014. The PSC approved funding for Petrov but liquidation was supposed to be handled through PATAFA. On many occasions, due to accounting and currency exchange difficulties, Obiena requested PATAFA to directly pay Petrov as shown in email exchanges to PATAFA as early as June 8, 2020. Local Filipino coaches are often paid directly by PATAFA in Philippine Pesos, but Petrov is an international coach working in Italy and requires payment in Euros. Philippine Pesos cannot directly be exchanged into Euros, but must first be exchanged to dollars, then dollars converted to Euros. Bank wire and exchange fees cost an average of $50 per transfer, an expense that Obiena paid from his personal funds.

On Feb. 16, 2021 Juico stated:

The PATAFA system required signed receipts prior to reimbursement, requiring the athlete to front the money for unexpected expenses. Petrov was aware of these payment difficulties with PATAFA and when contacted by Juico believed he was helping to improve PATAFA's inefficient system. No language translator was available to help Juico and Petrov, communicate during their meeting. These topics were never mentioned or acknowledged by Juico and further PATAFA deceptively modified email exchanges to make it appear Obiena never sent Petrov's banking details.

In Congressional hearings, Obiena noted that PATAFA had difficulties managing the needs of the team during the Tokyo Olympics. International flights and hotels arrangements were sometimes bungled. Obiena's poles were ordered and delivered late on several occasions, almost missing the Tokyo olympic deadline. Without poles Obiena would have been unable to compete in the Olympic events. These private PATAFA mistakes caused undue stress for the Obiena team.

Start of the dispute

In November 2021, a Philippine Daily Inquirer report stated that Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (PATAFA) ordered pole vaulter EJ Obiena to return financial assistance worth (over ) allegedly due to "falsified the liquidations submitted" to the federation. PATAFA stated that Obiena has not paid Vitaly Petrov coaching fees due to him, citing written statements from National Olympic Committee of Ukraine President Sergey Bubka and Petrov himself. The anonymous source cited by Inquirer mentioned that the matter is supposed to be privileged and strictly confidential in nature but confirmed that PATAFA launched an investigation concerning Obiena.

PATAFA President Philip Juico stated that the investigation was launched following a conversation between Bubka, Petrov and himself in September 2021. Juico said that Petrov revealed to him that he has not been paid since 2018 and that he signed a document related to his salary issue. It has been observed that Petrov does not speak English very well. On Dec 2, 2021 Petrov stated:

According to Obiena, PATAFA's written allegation against him shifted from him embezzling funds to paying his coach late. In January 2022, the PATAFA board has recommended filing estafa (swindling) criminal case against Obiena and his mother, Jeannete for alleged misappropriation of funds.

Positions EJ Obiena Obiena in response to PATAFA's accusation against him which was reported by Inquirer stated that the allegations are "rumors" that are "100% false and represent nothing more than character assassination". He mentioned that he has filed a complaint to the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC), the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and World Athletics. He has also appeared in an online press conference along with Petrov himself who backed Obiena's claim that he has been paid in full.

On November 21, Obiena presented documentary evidence that he has paid Petrov on time from May 2018 to August 2021. The pole vaulter has hired the service of PricewaterhouseCoopers to audit his payments though he admitted that some liquidation documents were processed late or in "a sloppy fashion".

While he admitted to occasionally paying his coach late, Obiena also raised that if PATAFA had been paying his coach directly the issue would not arise while he adds that he had request the federation in the past to do so but such proposal has been denied. He said that he would rather focus on training than doing additional accounting and other administration work.

Vitaly Petrov Vitaly Petrov denies making a grievance to PATAFA over his coaching fees he owed from Obiena. In December 2021, he maintained that Obiena has paid him adding that he was paid slightly more than the PATAFA said Obiena did not remit to him. Petrov though admitted that he has been paid late at times, sometimes in irregular tranches, by Obiena but maintains that the pole vaulter is trustworthy. Petrov attributes the payment to what he believes to be PATAFA's inefficiency and accused the federation of tricking him to be able for it to find fault on Obiena.

Petrov mentioned he and Sergey Bubka being approached personally by PATAFA President Philip Juico. He accused Juico of misleading him by making him take a questionnaire and being pressured to answer in a way Juico wanted. Petrov added he was made to understand that the questionnaire was made in order to facilitate smoother payments.

On January 26, 2022, he issued another statement claiming that PATAFA under Juico "never done anything to help develop Obiena". He expressed the federation's move to kick out Obiena from the national team "for nothing" despite having become one of the top five pole vaulters in the world.

PATAFA PATAFA confirmed that its investigation over Obiena is a response to written letters by Sergey Bubka and Vitaly Petrov. The federation also countered claims by Obiena that he has paid Petrov on time, insisting he has only settled his dues in November 2021 and not during the months which he officially reported in his liquidation report. It also noted discrepancies on transactions involving banks based in Dubai, Germany, and Manila.

PATAFA President Philip Juico denied accusations that he had pressured Petrov saying that the coach answered freely and volunteered information to him over the salary matter. He insinuated that Petrov is seeking to recant his statement since Petrov is with Obiena in Italy and the coach could end up losing more money.

On January 4, 2022, PATAFA's board recommended expelling Obiena from the national team pool and filing estafa (swindling) case against the athlete. It also recommended filing a case against Petrov before the World Athletics for violation of the Integrity Code of Conduct and declared Obiena's adviser Jim Lafferty as persona non grata.

PATAFA on January 28, 2022, released a statement saying it considers its dispute with Obiena as "case closed" after it submitted its findings of its investigation to the Philippine Sports Commission, and the Commission on Audit for review though it does not rule out pursuing legal actions.

Response Congress probe Philippine Senators quickly came to Obiena's defense, calling unproven accusations "harassment" against an athlete considered a national treasure and passing a motion to recall the budget of the PSC. The Senators later approved the PSC budget with the condition that PATAFA will “rectify the grave injustice” done to Obiena's reputation. During congressional hearings, witnesses testified that PATAFA's payment system is broken.

A probe regarding the matter at the House of Representatives has also been called for.

Philippine Sports Commission mediation The Philippine government's sports agency, the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) first offered to facilitate a mediation between Obiena's camp and PATAFA in November 2021. Obiena verbally stated that he is opened to the mediation but claims that PATAFA ignored PSC's move. In December 2021, Obiena reiterated his willingness for a PSC-led mediation but said he would prefer the Philippine Olympic Committee to finish its own investigation on his affair with PATAFA. The PSC would honor Obiena's stance and temporarily withdrew its mediation efforts.

PSC mediation efforts would continue in January 2022, with both camps reportedly willing to enter to. Efforts for mediation collapsed after Obiena withdrew from participating in the potential PSC-led mediation accusing PATAFA of acting on bad faith believing that the federation still intends to pursue the filing of a criminal cases of estafa against him which he said is baseless. He also expressed reluctance to enter to a confidential mediation since he took a stance that he has "nothing to hide" and acknowledged PSC commissioner Butch Ramirez as a peacemaker for initiating mediation.

Following the development, Ramirez pleads the two parties to resolve their issues even through just informal talks while he maintained that mediation is the best option. He asked Obiena to be "humble" and not "listen to people around him" also pleading to the athlete lawyers and for Juico to "act like a father" to the athlete.

Philippine Olympic Committee