MANILA, Philippines — Philippine Olympic Committee president and Tagaytay City Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino yesterday announced that all Filipino medalists in the just-concluded 30th Southeast Asian Games will receive cash incentives from the local Olympic body.
“We got some help from our friends, notably Mr. Dennis Uy of Udenna/Phoenix and my colleagues in Congress. The POC alone does not have enough cash to include everyone but we were fortunate to have individuals who personally pitched in because they believe our athletes deserve to be rewarded,” said Tolentino.
The POC will give out P200,000 for every individual gold medalist.
For team medalists, it’s P100,000 each for two members, P75,000 each for teams composed of 3-4 members, and P50,000 for every member of teams with five or more athletes who won gold.
Individual silver medalists and teams with two members will receive P50,000 per athlete while those with three or more members will be given P30,000 each.
All bronze medalists will receive P30,000 a piece.
The grand total comes out to P52.87 million.
“It’s the least we can do for the athletes who sacrificed, toiled and persevered to make our countrymen proud in our hosting of the Games,” the Tagaytay solon said.
“With the previous contributions from San Miguel Corp., the MVP Sports Foundation and the Philippine Basketball Association, plus yesterday’s pledge of P15 million from Mr. Uy and P6 million from the members of Congress, we are able to make this happen.”
“This is the first time that the POC is giving out cash incentives for SEA Games medalists,” he added.
The 2019 Philippine SEA Games yielded 149 gold medals, 117 silver and 121 bronze for the host country, which gave the Philippines the over-all championship.