THE Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (Patafa) said on Wednesday it is deferring the implementation of EJ Obiena's expulsion from the national pool and the filing of criminal charges against the Olympic pole vaulter 'for two weeks.'
In a letter signed by Patafa chairman Rufus Rodriguez, the athletics body said it is deferring the actions recommended by its fact-finding body in deference to calls made by government officials to resolve the issue 'like sportsmen.'
Patafa said it's move is consistent with the association's desire to have all the parties concerned go to a mediation offered by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) through Chairman Butch Ramirez.
The Patafa action is just the latest plot twist in the controversy surrounding Obiena, the Tondo-born pole vaulter who finished 11th in the last Tokyo Olympics and later set a new Asian record of 5.93 meters that World Athletics ranked as the third best performance in the sport last year.
Here's the Patafa letter to the PSC in full:

An internal probe into the salary of famed pole vault coach Vitaly Petrov which the Patafa coursed through Obiena and it alleged did not reach the latter based on a complaint by his compatriot, Ukrainian official and legend Sergey Bubka, sparked the controversy that rages to this day.
Obiena, 26, denied all the allegations.
[Here's a timeline of the Obiena-Patafa spat]
On Wednesday, the PSC board made four demands: for Obiena to finish his liquidation report to the government agency; for Patafa to reconsider Obiena's expulsion; for the POC to reconsider its decision to declare Patafa president Popoy Juico persona non-grata; and for all parties to go to mediation.
Malacanang has also waded into the dispute, with Cabinet Secretary and acting Presidential Spokesperson Karlo Nograles expressing the hope that the controversy 'will be threshed out' soon.
“We continue to support all of our athletes, including our star pole vaulter EJ Obiena and we hope that whatever disagreements that he may have… between EJ and the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association, hopefully they will all be threshed out,” he said in a Palace press briefing.
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