Filipino SEA Games medalists to receive rewards on 'Olympic Day' at UP

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Olympic Committee will hand out its incentives to Filipino medalists in last month’s 32nd Southeast Asian Games in Phnom Penh, Cambodia during Friday’s Olympic Day run at the University of the Philippines track oval in Diliman, Quezon City.

A total of P12.4 million will be personally distributed by POC president Abraham Tolentino right after leading the ceremony staged annually in celebration of the founding of the International Olympic Committee by Baron Pierre de Coubertin on June 23, 1894.

The event unfurls at 7 a.m. and will also be attended by the Philippine Olympian Association headed by Akiko Thomson and Stephen Fernandez and the Special Olympics Philippines, UP Dean of Human Kinetics Francis Diaz and POC deputy secretary-general Karen Tanchanco-Caballero.

Tolentino said the amount came from the POC’s Athletes Incentives Trust Fund as well as the Manuel V. Pangilinan Sports Foundation.

“The Filipino medalists deserve this reward,” said Tolentino.

Under the bonus scheme, an individual gold is worth P100,000, doubles P50,000 and team P30,000, an individual, doubles and team silver P50,000, P30,000 and P20,000 and individual, doubles and team bronze P30,000, P20,000 and P10,000, respectively.

That is apart from the P300,000 for a gold, P150,000 for a silver and P60,000 for a bronze medalists will receive from the government.

In all, expect Asian and world champion gymnast Carlos Yulo to get a windfall after emerging as the most bemedaled Filipino athlete with a two-gold, two silver haul in Phnom Penh.

Interestingly, Yulo is set to arrive Thursday night.