Tycoons link arms with POC

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) is teaming up with business tycoons and top sports patrons Manny V. Pangilinan of the MVP Group, Ramon S. Ang of San Miguel Corp. and Charlie Gonzales of Uticon Builders, Inc. in putting up a special incentive trust fund for Filipino medalists in future international meets.

POC president Abraham Tolentino said the trust fund is aimed at giving extra motivation for national athletes preparing for at least two major sporting events next year – the Phnom Penh Southeast Asian Games and Hangzhou Asian Games.

The extra bonus is apart from the reward the athletes and coaches stand to receive from the government for snaring medals in the international arenas like the SEA Games, Asian Games and Olympics.

“The POC expresses its gratitude to Mr. RSA (Ang) and Mr. MVP (Pangilinan) for their relentless and enthusiastic support to the trust fund, which is envisioned to inspire our athletes to level up further in their pursuit of victories overseas,” said Tolentino.

“It will be a very busy year for Philippine sports and, like how we did this year, the POC will again guarantee medalist athletes their incentives for them to excel even more,” he added.

The POC under the mayor of Tagaytay City started handing out cash bonuses to medalists in last year’s Tokyo Olympics and last May’s Hanoi Games. The POC awarded a total of P11.150 million to 417 athletes who harvested 52 gold, 70 silver and 105 bronze medals in Vietnam.

“All donations from private corporations will automatically go to that incentive trust fund for athletes,” he said.