By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
National athletes and sports officials can heave a sigh of relief – at least for now — after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) elevated the country’s case on alleged non-compliance of the WADA Code to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
The development came after WADA declared on Wednesday, Feb. 14, that the National Anti-Doping Organization of the country was non-compliant as “it did not resolve a number of critical non-conformities, as identified from WADA’s Code Compliance Questionnaire (CCQ) exercise.”
WADA, however, said that PHINADO disputed the allegations of non-compliance in a formal notification that they received on Tuesday, Feb. 13.
With this, WADA said they “will now refer the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) for its consideration.”
“As such, the consequences will not apply until CAS makes its ruling,” the statement read.
Those consequences could mean the Philippine flag not being flown at regional, continental and world championship events including the Olympics and the Paralympics — a fate now being suffered by Angola, which received a similar notice of non-compliance from WADA.
Unlike PHINADO, though, Angola did not contest WADA’s allegation of non-compliance.
PHINADO head Dr. Alejandro Pineda has yet to respond regarding the issue.
The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) was notified through PHINADO in September last year to comply with the WADA Code, where they were given four months to execute its plans. PHINADO is under the auspices of the PSC.
A formal notice of non-compliance was sent last month to the PSC, giving the anti-doping organization another 21 days to dispute WADA’s allegation of non-compliance.
