President Rodrigo Duterte. Photo from an RTVM video posted on Facebook
CEBU CITY, Philippines— Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte provided a much-needed morale booster for the Filipino Olympians and Paralympians that will be vying in the Tokyo Summer Olympics and Paralympics after adding P100,000 to their games allowance.
Malacañang Palace announced that President Duterte has approved an additional P100,000 games allowance to all 19 Tokyo Olympians and 6 Paralympians “as token and to celebrate the achievement of the athletes, who qualified for the Olympics and Paralympics.”
“Our athletes deserve this additional show of support,” Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Chairman Butch Ramirez who is now in Tokyo to cheer for the Filipino athletes.
“Thank you, President Duterte sa lagi niyong suporta sa ating mga atleta,” said Ramirez.
The additional support was approved upon the recommendation of Senate Committee on Sports Chairman Senator Bong Go and the PSC.
Initially, the PSC allocated $1000 allowance for each athletes as their allowance in the Olympics.
In total, PSC has spent over P2 Billion for foreign exposures, trainings, allowances, equipment, venues and supplies of the national team from 2016.
“We can see the sincere care of the President for our athletes, grassroots to elite ito. He is the only president who never missed any Palarong Pambansa, consistently recognized the achievements of our athletes by always inviting them to the Palace and sacrificed standing for three straight hours to award the incentives of our elite athletes,” said Ramirez.
Under the Republic Act (RA) 10699 or the expanded incentives act, an Olympic medalist stands to receive from the national government P10 million, P5 million and P2 million for a gold, silver or bronze medal respectively.
Paralympic medalists shall get P5 million, P2.5 million and P1 million for gold, silver or bronze wins./WITH PR
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