BY KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
WORLD champion gymnast Carlos Yulo stands to receive the biggest cash windfall after the Philippine Olympic Committee announced on Saturday that it will give cash incentives to athletes who won medals at the 30th Southeast Asian Games.
Yulo, who won two gold and five silver medalst in men’s artistics event, will pocket P650,000 in total for all the medals he’d won in his debut appearance based from the incentives that will be distributed by the local Olympic body.
Each gold medalist will receive P200,000, P50,000 for silver and P30,000 for bronze.
Team gold medalists will receive P100,000 each for two members, P75,000 for three to four members and P50,000 for every member of teams composed of five or more members.
Team silver winners will also get P50,000 per athlete for two members, and P30,000 each for three or more members.
All bronze winners will get P30,000 each.
The grand total is worth P52.87 million.
POC president and Tagaytag Rep. Bambol Tolentino said they got some help from generous supporters including Dennis Uy of Udenna/Phoenix and some of his colleagues in Congress.
Tolentino said Uy pledged P15 million while some members of the Congress committed to give P6 million.
Previous contributions also came from San Miguel Corp., the MVP Sports Foundation and the PBA.
“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,” he said.
“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.”
Tolentino also said this is the first time that the POC is giving out cash incentives for SEAG medalists.
The PH team reaped 149 gold, 117 silver and 121 bronze medals to clinch the overall championship in the Games.
The cash reward from the POC is separate from the P300,000 that a gold medalist will receive under the law and the P300,000 Malacanang likewise promised not just to gold medal winners but to the silver and bronze medalists as well.
