Region 7’s Palaro medalists to earn cash from DepEd

Nicole Dela Rita celebrates on the podium after receiving her gold medal for elementary girls lawn tennis at the recent Palarong Pambansa in Albay. Dela Rita and the rest of Region 7’s medal winners will receive cash incentives from the DepEd. (Contributed)

CASH incentives await the top performing athletes who helped the Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association (Cviraa) achieve its goal in the recent 59th Palarong Pambansa held in Legazpi City, Albay.

A gold medalist will receive P3,000, while the silver and bronze winners will get P2,000 and P1,000, respectively, said Dr. Luz Jandayan, chief of Education Support Service Division of the Department of Education in Central Visayas (DepEd-7).

“The cash incentives will come from the national office. But the regional division will also be giving cash incentives but it will be up to them how much to give,” said Jandayan in an interview a day before the week-long multi-sporting event concluded last Saturday.

Cviraa had a successful campaign in the Palaro, bouncing back from a sixth-place finish last year to fourth overall with a harvest of 29 gold medals, 31 silvers and 29 bronzes.

Cviraa got 13 golds, 10 silvers and 12 bronzes from its elementary athletes, while the secondary jocks delivered 16 golds, 21 silvers and 17 bronzes.

“What we did was we had the athletes train even when the Palaro was still weeks away. We really prepared for the competition since we wanted to improve our ranking,” added Jandayan.

Though Cviraa had a significant improvement, Jandayan said a post-Palaro assessment will be conducted as part of the early preparation for the next Palaro.

“There are events that we need to improve on. We will encourage continuous training for the next Palaro,” said Jandayan.