This year, more incentives coming from the Philippine Olympic Committee will be handed to national sports associations and their athletes for performing well in international meets.
Philippine Olympic Committee president Ricky Vargas said he plans to do this as the Philippines prepares to host the 2019 Southeast Asian Games later this year.
Vargas talked about the incentive scheme following a POC executive board meeting yesterday.
POC spokesman Ed Picson said the bonuses coming from the POC was part of his campaign platform when Vargas ran for president under his campaign mantra, PRIDE.
PRIDE, according to Vargas is all about, Partnership with the Philippine Sports Commission, Rewards for performing NSAs, Improvement of relations with the International Olympic Committee and Olympic Solidarity and Empowerment of the NSAs.
The POC chiefs will take these matters up before the General Assembly in the coming days.
The last time around, the POC handed out an estimated P14-million for the medallists of the 2018 Asian Games.
This is after the medallists in the recent Asiad received a total bonanza of P24-million for their efforts from the PSC.
After the Asiad, the PSC gave out incentives of P2 million for each gold, P500,000 for each silver and P300,000 for each bronze.
The money comes from the P76 million which Vargas was able to raise from corporate donations like San Miguel Corporation (P50 million), the Manny V. Pangilinan group (P20-million) and the PBA (P6 million).”‹