POC slams PATAFA for bringing rift with EJ Obiena to Court of Arbitration for Sport

The Philippine OIympic Committee (POC) slammed the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (PATAFA) and its president Philip Ella "Popoy" Juico for elevating its rift with pole vaulter EJ Obiena to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

According to the POC, Juico filed a “statement of appeal” on February 11 with the POC and Obiena as respondents to the CAS, which is based in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The appeal came just four days after both Obiena and PATAFA agreed to enter into mediation anew through a Senate hearing, which was presided by Senate Sports Committee Chair Christopher “Bong” Go and were attended by four other senators last February 7.

With this move, POC president Abraham "Bambol" Tolentino questioned the motive behind the filing of the case, which he described as "breaching integrity and putting a damper on a Philippine Senate-led effort to extinguish the crisis through a domestic effort."

“So what happened to the truce forged through the Senate? The mediation that both parties—Obiena and the Patafa (Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association) agreed on before our honorable Senators?” Tolentino said in a statement on Wednesday.

Tolentino added: “Filing a complaint against Obiena and the POC means [that] the Patafa is included in the complaint because Patafa is a member of the organization.”

Tolentino will now hire a lawyer and a CAS juror after he got the nod of the Executive Board during a hybrid meeting on Wednesday.

CAS was created by the International Olympic Committee “to bring about the resolution of sports-related disputes which are submitted to it through ordinary arbitration or through appeal against the decisions of sports bodies or organizations.” — LA, GMA News