Philippine Olympic Committee President Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino Saturday announced that all medalists from the Philippine hosting of the South East Asian Games will receive cash incentives from the local Olympic body.
“We got some help from our friends, such as Mr. Dennis Uy of Udenna/Phoenix and my colleagues in Congress. 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”, said Tolentino.
“This was all started by the San Miguel Corp. and the Manny V. Pangilinan Sports Foundation,” Tolentino added.
The POC will give out P200K for every individual gold medalist.
For team medalists, it’s P100K each for two members, P75K each for teams composed of 3-4 members, and P50K for every member of teams with 5 or more athletes who won gold.
Individual silver medalists and teams with 2 members will receive P50K per athlete while those with 3 or more members will be given P30K each.
All bronze medalists will receive P30K a piece.
The grand total comes out to P52.87M in cash incentives.
“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,” the Tagaytay solon said.
“With the previous contributions from San Miguel Corporation, the MVP Sports Foundation and the PBA, plus yesterday’s pledge of P15M from Mr. Uy and P6M from the members of Congress, we are able to make this happen”.
“This is the first time that the POC is giving out cash incentives for SEA Games medalists”, he added.
The 2019 Philippine SEA Games yielded 149 gold medals, 117 silver and 121 bronze for the host country, which gave the Philippines the over-all championship. Vietnam, the next host country in 2021, was a distant second with 98 gold while third placer Thailand managed 92.
