The ‘character assassination’ claim of Obiena pushed him to hire the private firm PricewaterhouseCoopers to help him in auditing his payments to coach Vitaly Petrov.

“I will publish this audit in a public domain for all to see; it will show that every single centavo is accounted, for all was paid by myself. I welcome a bright light shining in this situation because I have nothing to hide,” Obiena said.

Obiena also shared that out of the blue, he just received a demand letter from the federation giving him 14 hours to explain the same issue.

“I didn’t know none of this. Nobody asked me any questions, nobody asked for clarity or supporting documentation. They just leveled the charges against me. This runs counter to any principle of justice from what I believe, wherein we are innocent until proven guilty,” he said.

“My own federation comes at me with pure aggression, no benefit of any doubt, and with intent to destroy my reputation. If the objective of a sports federation is to destroy and demoralize an athlete and undermine their performance, I think this is textbook example of how we can actually achieve this.”

Patafa, on the other hand, shared that they proceeded only on the basis of a statement signed by coach Petrov, who stated that he had not been paid for his services to Obiena.

But, seemingly, the side of coach Petrov is a different story from what the federation has affirmed.

“I must say I do not understand what the federation is doing and what comes out of this. I have been fully paid by EJ, both directly and indirectly. I have no problem with EJ Obiena,” coach Petrov explained.

Moreover, PSC chairman Butch Ramirez said in a statement that “for now, let us allow PATAFA and EJ to sort the matter internally within their NSA, as it should be. The PSC will intervene when it is appropriate,” 

And despite different angles of stories, Obiena averred that he welcomes a full and open accounting saying that “I have nothing to hide. I’m an open book.”