PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte personally handed out the incentives to Filipino medalists of the 29th Kuala Lumpur Southeast Asian Games in a ceremony at the Malacañang Palace yesterday.
Fil-American sprinter Trenten Berams emerged as the biggest recipient among the Southeast Asian Games medalists with P615,000 in incentives after he won two gold medals in the 200-meter dash and the 400-meter run, plus a bronze with a victory in the men’s 4×100 relay in the athletics’ competition of the games.
Based on Republic Act 10699 also known as the National Athletes and Coaches Benefits and Incentives Act, a gold winner will receive P300,00, while a silver medalist will get P150,000. Bronze medalist will take home P60,000.
Trentam, who is currently in the US, was represented by athletics’ president Philip Juico and his secretary general Renato Unso.
Duterte handed out the cash incentives amounting to P18,037,500 to the Filipino athletes, who won 24 gold, 33 silver, and 64 bronze medals in the biennial games.
A total of P7,181,250 were also handed out to their coaches.
Duterte also gave out presidential citations to the medalists for giving pride to the country in the SEA Games topped by host Malaysia. The Philippines ended up at 6th place.
The other gold medals came from Mary Joy Tabal in marathon, Nikko Bryan Huelgas and Marion Kim Mangrobang in men’s and women’s triathlon, Kaitlin De Guzman and Reyland Capellan in gymnastics, Agatha Wong in wushu, Wayne Louie Brennan in fencing, Eric Shawn Cray and Aries Toledo in athletics, boxers Eumir Felix Marcial and John Marvin.
The rest of the golds came from men’s lawn ball, men’s basketball, men’s hockey team, men’s poomsae team in taekwondo, men’s pencal silat Tanding team, judokas Kiyomi Watanabe and Maria Takahasi, taekwondo’s Sam Morrison, equestrian’s Colin John Siquia and billiard’s Cheska Centeno and Carlo Biado.
The athletes were accompanied by PSC Chairman William Ramirez and his four commissioners Celia Kiram, Charles Maxey, Arnold Agustin and Mon Fernandez.
Meanwhile, Presidential Adviser for Sports Dennis Uy will be giving additional cash incentives to the athletes, with P50,000.00 going to the gold medalists, P30,000.00 for the silver medalists, and P10,000.00 for the bronze medalists.
The additional cash incentives is an initiative by Uy through his Siklab Atleta Pilipinas Sports Foundation to support the Filipino athletes in their hard work and dedication to represent the country in international competitions.