A gold medallist in the 2018 Asian Games could receive more than P5 million.
Businessman-sportsman Dennis Uy made this assurance through the Siklab Pilipinas Sports Foundation.
The Foundation is offering an Asiad gold medalist P1 million in cash for his achievement.
This will go with the P2 million cash bonus from the Philippine Olympic Committee and the P2 million that the government has promised through Republic Act 10699, which expands the coverage of incentives granted to national athletes and coaches.
The government is also putting up a bonus of P500,000 for a silver medalist and P300,000 for the bronze achiever.
Silver medalists will also have an additional bonus of P500,000 from the Siklab Foundation, on top of the government offer of P1 million and the POC incentive of P500,000.
For the bronze winners, the foundation offers P250,000, to go with the government bonus of P400,000 and P300,000 from the POC, according to spokesman Ed Picson, as announced by POC president Ricky Vargas.
These incentives could go higher when the Manny V. Pangilinan Sports Foundation pitches in Philippine Sports Commission Chairman William “Butch” Ramirez, back from a three-month leave of absence, lauded Uy’s desire to help elite athletes in their quest for excellence.
“Uy just wants to help. After the Asiad, he will start spending for potential medalists to the Olympics,” said Ramirez
The PSC chief, who will soon fly to Indonesia to cheer Filipino athletes in the Asiad, added that Uy’s support will continue until the 2020 Olympics.
“We want to help fuel the country’s dream of global recognition in sports. Through this incentive, we hope to motivate and inspire our athletes to excel and bring pride to our country,” said Uy in a statement.
With so much support coming in for elite athletes, Ramirez said they can now focus on their work in grassroots sports development and leave the elite program to the Philippine Olympic Committee and the national sports associations.
“I am expecting the hard work on grassroots to greatly affect us. We will continue to do this. Because by strengthening the grassroots, we will strengthen the elite athletes,” said Ramirez.
Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games 2016 silver medalist Hidilyn Diaz, a Siklab Atleta-sponsored athlete, heads the list of Philippine athletes going to the Asiad.