To encourage sports excellence, City Councilor Jerry Guardo is lobbying support for his proposed ordinance granting cash incentives amounting to P50,000 to as high as P1 million to athletes who stand out in international sports events.
Guardo said the ordinance includes coaches who win medals in these international events.
These sporting events include the Olympic Games, the Asean Games and the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
“There is a need to grant cash incentives as a form of financial assistance to the medalists and their coaches in order to motivate and inspire the Cebu City athletes to bring out their best,” Guardo said in his proposed ordinance.
Guardo, who heads the council’s committee on youth and sports development, said while there were already times when the city government extended cash incentives to athletes in the past, the reward system needs to be institutionalized.
Under the proposed ordinance, athletes who get a gold in the Olympics will be given P1 million while those who finish with a silver and bronze medal will get P500,000 and P300,000, respectively.
For those in the Asean Games, gold medalists will be given P300,000, silver medalists will get P200,000 while bronze medalists will be given P100,000.
Lastly, for those participating in the SEA Games, they will be given P150,000 if they get a gold, P100,00 if they get a silver and P50,000 if they get a bronze.
The incentive will be divided among the team in case they won in a team sport.
The registered coach or trainer for these athletes will receive 30 percent of the cash incentive that his or her athlete receives. This will be divided if there are more than one coach or trainer for the winning athlete.
Qualified athletes must be Filipino citizens and must be a Cebu City resident or those who refer to Cebu City as their home or principal hometown.
They must also be certified athletes by the chairman of the Cebu City Sports Commission or by the Cebu City mayor.
If the proposed ordinance gets approved, the city will have to allocate an initial amount of P2 million every year for the incentive program.