By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
(UPDATED) Certainly, national athletes and coaches will have a merry Christmas.
That’s because starting next week, they will get their allowances in full, Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) President and Tagatay Rep. Abraham ‘Bambol’ Tolentino announced Thursday.
The monthly allowances of the coaches and national athletes were slashed into half since July after Philippine Sports Commission’s budget were channeled to pandemic efforts, but Tolentino, was able to include a provision in the House Bill No. 6953 or the Bayanihan Act 2 an amount that would cover all the trimmed allowances over the past months.
“This is good news for our athletes who have become anxious and even lost their focus during the pandemic,” Tolentino said in a statement.
“With their allowances back to normal, they can now concentrate on their training.”
The Bayanihan Act 2 provides P180 million for national team members’ allowances.
“And that’s retroactive from July,” Tolentino said.
Athletes and coaches will also receive additional P5,000 as monetary assistance brought by the pandemic.
“The funds are now with the PSC and we expect the allowances to be back to normal on the next pay day for the athletes and coaches,” Tolentino said.
There are 996 athletes, 262 coaches, 280 differently-abled athletes and 82 para coaches in the national team. Their total monthly payroll is P41 million.
“It pains me and the POC, and even the PSC, to see the athletes and coaches suffer. After their historic and impressive performance in the 30thSEA Games where we emerged as overall champions, the athletes and coaches deserve nothing less,” Tolentio said.
