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    Juico hints 'sports group' feeding Patafa-Obiena war of words

    Juico denies 'tricking' Petrov into making statements vs Obiena
    Dec 2, 2021
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    PHOTO: Jerome Ascano

    PHILIPPINE Athletics Track and Field Association (Patafa) president Philip Ella Juico strongly denied accusations made by EJ Obiena’s coach that he was pressured into signing a document that eventually led to an internal probe on the alleged non-payment of his salaries.

    In a statement issued on Thursday, Juico took exception to claims that he misled and “tricked” famed pole vault coach Vitaliy Petrov into signing the document, saying they were in different time zones during the conversation.

    The Patafa president hinted that a certain “sports group” is behind the Petrov statement.

    “How can Petrov be pressured, coerced, misled, or tricked by me or Patafa when we are not even in the same continent or time zones,” Juico said. “Obiena is, on the other hand, with him probably 12 hours a day, every day up to Saturday and with whom he goes hiking as Obiena announces on Facebook.

    "How can I exercise any form of moral ascendancy over Petrov, when on the contrary, Patafa and I had expressed our thanks to him for training Obiena and accepting Obiena through a scholarship program I myself worked on together with Sergey Bubka (who was present in all conversations I had with Petrov),” said Juico.

    An internal probe was launched based on Petrov's claim that he has not received his salaries totalling P5 million, according to Patafa. Petrov’s former ward Bubka, who is also an official of World Athletics and Ukraine’s national Olympic committee, also validated Petrov's statements to Patafa through an affidavit.

    On Wednesday, Petrov, who also trained two-time Olympic gold medalist Yelena Isinbeyeva, retracted all statements he made to Juico in relation to the issue.

    The legendary coach said, for the record, that he was already paid by Obiena; he does not have any issue with Obiena, and that he was misled by Patafa. He also described the investigation as a ‘witch hunt.’

    Juico said he was no longer surprised by Petrov recanting his statements, pointing out that the coach was with Obiena in Fornia, Italy the whole time since the controversy erupted.

    "How could I control or have access to him when he himself said that Obiena built a wall between us and this ‘incident,' as he calls the present investigation, would not have happened had we personally met much earlier,” said Juico.

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    “Petrov was asked and he answered freely and even volunteered information. He was fully aware. He knows the truth. Petrov’s decision now to come to the aid of Obiena after firmly reporting the non-payment of coaching fees, comes as no surprise as they are both together in Formia, Italy and the prospect of losing Euros 5,000 a month (which Petrov said in his statement was really only Euros 3,000, as he agreed with Obiena) in Patafa-approved fees and his 10 percent share in Obiena’s earnings which are not reported to Patafa or PSC, even as a matter of information. These sums do not include appearance fees paid for simply showing up in a tournament and staying healthy courtesy of the government and Patafa,” said Juico.

    During his conversation with Petrov, Juico said he even promised to the Ukrainian coach that his unpaid fees will be given to him. The coach was even very thankful that an action was being taken, he added.

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    “Petrov knows the truth. He knows and appreciated my help and even encouraged me to report his and Sergey Bubka’s statements to the Patafa board to help recover his unpaid fees. I promised him and Sergey I would help recover the missing fees because, as Sergey Bubka said, it was embarrassing to the Philippines.

    “Why would Petrov, Sergey and I invent such a story? How could I sustain an elaborate web of deception and lies with the participation of such an honorable person like Sergey Bubka, assuming Petrov was pressured into signing his statement?”

    Juico didn’t name the ‘sports group’ that he believes is behind the recent statements of Petrov which came at a time when the Philippine Sports Commission and the Philippine Olympic Committee are taking action on the matter separately.

    “I wonder, however, if a sports group is pressuring him to issue a statement to make me look bad prior to a code of conduct committee hearing. It seems someone from that sports group was distributing Petrov’s ‘statement’ to media outlets,” said Juico.

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    PHOTO: Jerome Ascano
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