Future SEA Games medalists could get bigger cash bonuses

A cash-bonus schedule of P300,000 for gold, P200,000 for silver and P75,000 for bronze.

These are the incentives being proposed for the future medalists of the Southeast Asian Games, according to Philippine Olympic Committee president Jose “Peping” Cojuangco Jr., who conferred Thursday with representatives of congressional sports officials and the chairs of the Philippine Sports Commission and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.

“The Senate has formed a technical working group to tackle the proposed increase,” said Cojuangco. “The athletes will really benefit from this.”

Present during the meeting were PSC chair Richie Garcia, Pagcor chair Cristino Naguiat, POC chair Tom Carrasco, treasurer Julian Camacho and representatives of Sen. Sonny Angara and Davao del Norte Rep. Anthony del Rosario.

Pagcor is mandated by law to augment the PSC’s annual budget.

Republic Act 9064, known as the Athletes and Coaches Incentives Act, allocates only P100,000 for gold, P50,000 for silver and P10,000 for bronze in the SEA Games.

“It’s really about time. If it pushes through, that’s a big amount,” said Garcia, who will meet with the Senate technical working group starting Tuesday to tackle the proposed increase.

Angara is the chair of the Senate committee on Games, Amusement and Sports while Del Rosario heads the Youth and Sports Development committee of the House of Representatives.

Cojuangco said the cash rewards in the Asian Games and the Olympics would also be reviewed.

An Asian Games gold is worth P1 million while P5 million will go to the first Filipino gold medalist in the Olympics.

Garcia has also brought up the incentives of athletes in team sports. The law provides the same cash rewards for individual disciplines and team sports.

“We’ll study the distribution and rates of incentives among those from team sports,” said Garcia. “It should be equal and the same.”

The PSC will distribute the cash incentives to medal-winning athletes in the Singapore SEA Games tomorrow during the Olympic Day celebrations at Philsports Arena.

The Philippines placed sixth among 11 countries after bringing home 29 gold, 36 silver and 66 bronze medals.

The medalists, led by the track and field record-setters Caleb Stuart and Eric Cray, stand to receive a total of P9.015 million in cash incentives from the PSC.

Cray, who is based in San Antonio, Texas, earned P300,000 for winning the men’s 100m dash and shattering the Games record in the 400m hurdles while Stuart, who erased the Games’ hammer throw mark, netted P200,000.

Cray and Stuart earned P100,000 each for their record-breaking exploits.