MEMBERS of the House of Representatives have raised at least P1 million from their own salaries as incentive and way of commending Hidilyn Diaz for winning Silver medal, ending the country’s 20-year Olympic medal drought.
Zamboanga City Rep. Celso Lobregat said he made the initiative and Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez joined the campaign among their colleagues for voluntary donation of their salaries to recognize the victory of Diaz who hails from Lovregat’s district.
Lobregat said that Diaz is also expected to pay a visit at the House of Representives where she shall be given a plaque of commendation and the cash gift from lawmakers.
“We’re arranging maybe Hidilyn will go to Congress maybe on Wednesday… [The] recommendation right now, maybe each congressman [would] voluntarily have a salary deduction, depending on how much they want [to give as incentive for Hidilyn],” Lobregat told reporters.
Lobregat said at least 145 of 294 lawmakers have signed in the resolution to donate a portion of their salaries.
Asked how much he and Alvarez donated for Diaz from their salaries, Lobregat said: “It’s not the amount, it’s the gesture.”
Pwersa ng Bayaning Atleta (PBA) party-list Reps. Jericho Jonas Nograles and Mark Sambar, both representing the sports sector, said the victory of Diaz should inspire should the country’s sports and local government officials in pushing for a rigid and professionalized trainings of athletes.
“Let us support the training of Diaz and her victory should inspire
our country’s concerned officials to allot more budget for the trainings of our athletes,” Nograles said in the same news conference.
“It’s a very good stepping stone… It’s very good to see that we are having success in the Olympics. Sana we can carry over her success to the national government, to the LGUs, that we have to support these kinds of programs,” Sambar added.
Diaz won the women’s 53-kilogram category in weightlifting in the 2016 Rio Olympics, another indisputable proof that Filipino is a world-class athlete of its own, the lawmakers said.