By Jesus A. Garcia Jr

 

WHAT a relief. The month-old Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association – EJ Obiena dispute is finally over.

Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) chairman William “Butch” Ramirez issued the press statement after the successful fifth mediation meeting last March 30 between the two warring parties PATAFA president Philip Juico and Asian pole vault record holder EJ Obiena. Finally, they agreed on the contentious basic terms that could have been reached much earlier if their egos had not been bloated.

Ramirez said he felt softening between Juico and Obiena and was confident that their scheduled meeting on April 1 won’t be necessary.  “We’re almost there and I’m 90 to 95 percent positive that the very long rift of the two warring factions, I believe, will now amicably be solved peacefully, said Ramirez, “As a mediator, I’ve seen the positive side of both sides and I hope we can patch up on Friday (April 1),” he said

Well, thank God for that. Hopefully, there will be no more glitches and more hubris to come in the months ahead.

Recall that the impasse started when PATAFA headed by Juico accused the lanky Tondo, Manila-born Obiena that he allegedly mishandled some government funds intended for Obiena’s Ukrainian mentor Vitaly Petrov salary. Consequently, PATAFA that handles all our national track and field athletes did not even include Obiena on its list of athletes for this year’s Hanoi, Vietnam Southeast Asia (SEA) Games in spite of being the defending champion. That irked Obiena and Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) czar Bambol Tolentino. The POC Executive Board retaliated and suspended PATAFA for 90 days for making the dispute turn from bad to worse. Yes, it was an “eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth,” as the cliché says.

Luckily, all’s well now (so far) for the two warring parties, with Obiena expressing his act of contrition, humility, to all people concerned including his national teammates. Ramirez who presided over the mediation elatedly bared the good news that resulted in PATAFA eventually agreeing to endorse the 26 year-old five-foot-eleven world fifth ranked Obiena not only to the coming SEA Games on May 12 to 23 but also the prestigious World Athletics Championship scheduled on July 10 to 25 in Eugene, Oregon, U.S.  as well as the esteemed Hangzhou Asian Games in China slated on September 10 to 25. Yes, of course, all under the stewardship of PATAFA.

Honestly, being a former national team member in 1964, I was concerned and I followed this brouhaha from day one up to last Wednesday. In fact, I had written some articles about this nasty situation and I shook my head in disgust that this kind of mess could happen especially when an international event like the biennial meet SEA Games is already around the corner, knowing Obiena is a sure gold medal winner. But “pataasan ng ihi,” as the Filipinos say, prevailed at the expense of our beloved country.

Now, the big question is, when will we ever learn? Siguro pagputi ng uwak.

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Go therefore and make disciples all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. MATTHEW 28: 19-20

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