LAWYER Sannah Frivaldo has quit her post as executive director of the Philippine Sports Commission.
Deputy executive director Rachel Dumuk has taken over her post, which Frivaldo gave up her early this week.
Commissioner Ramon Fernandez confirmed that the PSC is now looking to fill Privaldo’s shoes.
Among the things that Frivaldo handled before she left was the probe on allegations that several national karatedo athletes did not receive their full allowances during their 20-day training stint in Germany last July.
As Dumuk temporarily came aboard, the PSC made an overhaul of its allowance scheme of athletes.
Officials said the prioritization program for national athletes that was implemented over the last six years was not doing well.
And this became the main reason why board members of the Philippine Sports Commission decided to craft a new allowance scheme for national athletes.
“Dati, may prioritization program. Pero, sinet aside namin. The past administration admitted that it did not work,” said Dumuk.
So far, with the new scheme, the agency has reduced the number of athletes that it is supporting from 939 last December to 730.
Under the prioritization scheme, athletes who sign a contract, are required to become full-time athletes.
Under such a scheme, athletes who won medals in the Olympics, Asian Games and Southeast Asian will get a higher allowance of P43,000, P33,000 and P27,000 for gold, silver and bronze.
On the other hand, athletes who do well in world competitions will get as much as P20,000.
After much study, the PSC decided to take away the prioritization program, and give the world champions an equal billing with the Olympic medalists.
Under the new program, Olympic gold medalists and world champions will now have a better allowance of P45,000.