Cebu City SEA Games medalists to finally get cash incentives — Hontiveros

Cebu’s marathon queen Mary Joy Tabal shows her 2019 SEA Games silver medal. |Source: Tabal’s Facebook page

CEBU CITY, Philippines — After a year of waiting, Cebu City athletes who won medals in the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, will finally get the cash incentives promised by the city government.

Councilor Donaldo “Dondon” Hontiveros, who sponsored the resolution for the release of the funds, said the Council has approved the over P2 million budget for the SEA Games medalists during the regular session on December 9, 2020.

City athletes who won medals in the biennial regional games are entitled to cash incentives as mandated by a city ordinance. Gold medalists should receive P100,000, silver medalists should receive P50,000, while bronze medalists will get P25,000.

“Mangayo lang mig pasensya nga nadugay siya kay wala man gyod toy budget allocated ato that year (2019). Pero this year, nakaprocess na gyod ta, misunod lang ta sa ordinance while the Office of the Mayor and budget officials are looking for an account as pud mapuno ang additional nga gusto ni Mayor,” said Hontiveros in an interview on December 10, 2020.

(We apologize for the delay in the release of the incentives because there was no allocation that year. However, this year we were able to process it, following what is in the ordinance, while the Office of the Mayor and budget officials are looking for an account where the additional incentives can be sourced from.)

With the approval of the budget for the athletes, the City Sports Commission is already working on distributing the cash incentives to teams or athletes who garnered medals. They target to start and finish the distribution before the year ends.

“Hopefully malipay ang atong mga athletes. Pahalipay gyod na nato para nila, who made us proud. (Hopefully, our athletes will be happy. This is our form of gratitude to them who made us proud),” said Hontiveros

Since Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella promised to provide additional incentives to the medalists since the city values their achievement in the SEA Games, the local finance committee is looking for ways to provide additional incentives for the medal winners.

This would help especially teams who have to divide the cash incentives among their members.

“Actually naa may ordinansa nga fixing the amount, but nisaad ta nga mas dako atong ihatag. So nagpatabang ta sa committee on budget and finance nga gipangulohan ni Councilor Raymond Garcia ug local finance committee nga madungagan what is provided for in the ordinance,” said the mayor.

(Actually, there is an ordinance fixing the amount, but we promised to give more. So we asked the help of the committee on budget and finance led by Councilor Raymond Garcia to add more to these incentives.)

Though these additional incentives may not yet be released within the year, the mayor and Councilor Hontiveros promised this will be released the soonest time possible.

The country hosted the 30th edition of the regional games last year and emerged as overall champion with a runaway harvest of 149 golds, 117 silvers, and 121 bronze medals. /rcg