By Kristel Satumbaga
Christmas will come early for national athletes and coaches as the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) announced Wednesday it will remit their allowances in full in the first week of December.
This after the government sports agency confirmed receipt of the P180 million funding under the Bayanihan Act 2 which was initiated by Tagaytay Rep. Bambol Tolentino.
Tolentino is also the concurrent president of the Philippine Olympic Committeem (POC).
National athletes in team sports are also set to receive the remaining 50 percent of their June and July allowances and will continue to receive their full allowances until December along with the rest of Team Philippines.
Athletes and coaches will also receive additional P5,000 as monetary assistance brought by the pandemic.
PSC chairman Butch Ramirez thanked the congress, senate and President Duterte for including the athletes in the coverage of the Republic Act No. 11494.
“A community coming together really makes a whole lot of difference,” Ramirez said.
The athletes’ monthly allowances were slashed into half since July after PSC’s budget were channeled to pandemic efforts, but l Tolentino was able to include a provision in the house bill an amount that would cover all the trimmed allowances over the past months.
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.