Cebu City athletes get more cash incentives

CEBU, Philippines — The Palarong Pambansa-bound Cebu City athletes get an added boost with cash incentives to be given by the Cebu City Government for their winning efforts in the 2025 Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association (CVIRAA) Regional Meet in Bayawan City.

Cebu City continues to dominate the regional level in this DepEd-organized multi-sporting event, albeit lower than last year’s medal haul at 105 golds, 89 silvers, and 73 bronzes, while Bohol was far second overall with 61-51-79 and Cebu Province at third spot with 42-40-79 gilts.

The city’s winning athletes were presented yesterday during the flag-raising ceremony with Mayor Raymond Garcia expressing how proud he is of them.

“Thank you for making Cebu City proud!” Garcia said while also thanking DepEd-Cebu City division and the Local School Board “for this significant milestone that we have achieved”.

Garcia also thanked the coaches and trainers in the recently-concluded event. A thanksgiving dinner and cash incentives also await the medalists of CVIRAA next week.

Garcia announced that individual gold medalists will get ?5,000 while ?3,000 will go for silver and ?2,000 thousand for bronze.

For team sports, the amount will be ?10,000 for gold, ?7,000 for silver, and ?5,000 for bronze.

The mayor asked the athletes if they have received cash incentives in the past to which they responded as none, that led Garcia to say this will be the first time that medalists will get incentives from the city government.

However, many of the medalists though were also first-timers in the CVIRAA and had no prior knowledge about the last regional meets. Some sources of The Freeman recall cash incentives from the city government although mostly coursed for distribution through DepEd-Cebu City Division in the past.

More to the cash incentives though, Garcia also promised that the city government will extend full support for the Palaro-bound athletes.

“We will obviously give all our support when you compete in this year's Palarong Pambansa for 2025,” Garcia added.

Cebu City will be sending around 190 athletes, coaches, assistant coaches, and chaperons in this year’s Palaro set later next month in Ilocos Norte.

This time, Cebu City athletes form part of the Central Visayas squad together with the rest of the top athletes in the Visayas. – (FREEMAN)