The House of Representatives is moving to strengthen the support system for Filipino athletes by revisiting and potentially amending Republic Act (RA) 10699, the National Athletes and Coaches Benefits and Incentives Act.
Speaker Martin Romualdez made this announcement on Wednesday as lawmakers welcomed returning Filipino Olympians, who made waves at the recently concluded 2024 Summer Games in Paris.
In recognizing the athletes’ achievements, he stressed the need to improve existing legislation to better serve the Philippine sports community.
Romualdez tasked Isabela Rep. Faustino Michael Carlos Dy III, chair of the House Committee on Youth and Sports Development, to lead the legislative review.
“We will conduct a review of our legislation, among others, Republic Act No. 10699, the National Athletes and Coaches Benefits and Incentives Act. We need to amend the law to allow us to extend more support and help to all our athletes,” Romualdez said in a mixture of English and Filipino.
“I will ask our chairman, Mike Dy to conduct a review on how we can further improve the legislation so we can set aside more funds for sports,” Romualdez said.
“We will be meeting again further with our friend, [Chairman Richard] Dick Bachmann from the Philippine Sports Commission and of course with President Abraham Tolentino of the Philippine Olympic Committee and of course the stakeholders on how we can improve the plight of our athletes,” the Speaker said.
Romualdez, Tingog Rep. Yedda K. Romualdez, Senior Deputy Speaker Aurelio Gonzales Jr., Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe, Isabela Dy, and House Secretary General Reginald Velasco led the awarding of incentives and citations to all the athletes and coaches who attended the event.
Olympics double gold medalist Carlos Edriel Yulo received P6 million from the Lower House for his two gold medals and an additional P8.010 million from contributions of House.
This is on top of the P500,000 he received before he left for the Paris Olympics. In total, Yulo received P14.510 million.
Boxers Nesthy Petecio and Aira Villegas each received P1 million for winning bronze medals, and an additional P2.5 million each from contributions of House members.
They also received P500,000 each before leaving for France, for a total of P4 million each.
Each of the 19 Olympic athletes who failed to fetch medals also received a total of P1 million: P500,000 before leaving the country and P500,000 during Wednesday’s ceremony.
