PHINADO, PSC confident of resolving WADA issue
The Philippine Anti-doping Agency (PHINADO) and the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) are confident that the issue on the alleged noncompliance on the World Antidoping Agency (WADA) Code will be resolved soon, assuring everyone particularly national athletes that the country’s flag can be flown in major international stages including the Paris Olympics.
PHINADO representative Nathan Vasquez said they are already working on corrective actions based on code compliance in order to fulfill WADA’S requirements.
“Based on the code compliance, we basically need to conform with four requirements—open testing distribution program, athlete’s biological passport, registration testing pool and results management,” said Vasquez during the PSA Forum on Tuesday, Feb. 20.
“We checked out on the first two, we’re halfway checking out the third and we’re now working on the fourth. We’re still working on the corrective actions, as long as everything is checked off, everything is going to be well,” he added.
PSC Chairman Richard Bachmann, whose agency works hand in hand with PHINADO, also said they have also sought help from no less than President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. regarding the issue, which has been elevated to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
“With everyone helping out, from the legislation, the government. We have a meeting this Friday with (President) BBM, and I’m confident that we will be able to solve this case,” Bachmann said.
WADA declared on Wednesday, Feb. 14, that the National Anti-doping Organization of the country was noncompliant as “it did not resolve a number of critical non-conformities, as identified from WADA’S Code Compliance Questionnaire (CCQ) exercise.”