The Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (PATAFA) has recommended the removal of Olympian EJ Obiena from the national training pool following allegations of alleged misappropriation of player funds, something he has already denied.
In a news conference on Tuesday, PATAFA said they will file a criminal complaint against Obiena, “insofar as the funds of PATAFA in the amount of 6000 Euros are concerned representing the coaching fees for the months of May 2018 to August 2018.”
PATAFA’s recommendation includes filing a complaint against EJ Obiena’s coach Vitaliy Petrov with World Athletics for allegedly violating the Integrity Code of Conduct, dismissing Petrov as PATAFA coach, and declaring Obiena’s adviser James Lafferty persona non-grata.
The PATAFA recommendation will be sent to the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) and Philippine Sports Committee (PSC).
Among those who appeared in the PATAFA committee’s investigation were:
Obiena’s alleged misuse of 61,026.80 Euros, or the equivalent of P3,661,608 released by PATAFA and PSC as payment to Petrov, but not paid until August 2021;
The alleged misuse of Jeanette Obiena, EJ’s mother, of the P624,116.76 allegedly from the PSC “under the pretext that it is a reimbursement of the coaching fee paid to Mr. Petrov for the months of January 2019 to March 2019. ”
PATAFA wants to remove EJ Obiena from national pool, charge him with estafa
Earlier, the Philippine Olympic Committee declared PATAFA chief Philip Juico persona non grata, following the ethics committee’s recommendation, as a result of the dispute with Obiena.
Obiena represented the Philippines in Tokyo last year, which began to clash with PATAFA because of funding for his training.
“Do you want medals or do you want accountant-athletes? Make a choice. I always believed my job as an athlete is to compete at the highest level. I make mistakes when you ask me to play accountant. This is not a crime,” said the athlete.
He insisted he had no money to take for his coach.
“What’s now clear, and we all agree .— I never took a single centavo of money from my coach. Not even the fees for transfer or exchange rates were deducted to his salary. I paid those out of pocket,” said EJ Obiena.
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