TAGAYTAY City once again rolled out the red carpet for the country’s medalists in the Tokyo Olympics with the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) General Assembly honoring gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz and co. with “festivity and gratitude,” not to mention another round of cash bonuses from the country’s highest sports authority.
“We concluded a POC General Assembly [GA] under a theme of ‘festivity and gratitude,’” POC President Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino said. “The GA is celebrated with a festivity under the presence of our Olympic medalists who were actually and physically handed their incentive checks from the POC.”
No amount of heavy rain and strong wind from Typhoon Jolina could prevent the POC from conducting its first post-Olympics GA, which was highlighted by Tolentino handing out cash incentives not only to the medalists but to all 19 athletes who competed in Tokyo.
Diaz, who ended the country’s close-to-a-century gold medal search by ruling the women’s -55 kgs class of weightlifting in Tokyo, received P3 million, while silver medalists Nesthy Petecio, Carlo Paalam and bronze medalist Eumir Felix Marcials, all boxers, got P2 million and P1 million, respectively.
The 15 other athletes in Tokyo also got bonuses of P500,000 each, while Tolentino thanked President Rodrigo Duterte, the Senate and House of Representatives for similarly honoring the medalists with Presidential Merit, Order of Lapu-Lapu, Senate Medal of Excellence and Congressional Medal of Excellence awards.
Tolentino also praised House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco for giving Diaz P3 million, Paalam and Petecio P2 million each and Marcial P1 million on Tuesday, as well as the Senate which separately gifted Diaz P1 million, Petecio and Paalam P500,000 each and Marcial P400,000 on Monday.
The POC also recognized the support given by tycoons Manuel V. Pangilinan (Smart and PLDT) and Ramon S. Ang of San Miguel Corporation and AirAsia.
The Samahang Weightlifting ng Pilipinas and Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines were also recognized for honing their athletes to Olympic success.
“HD’s [Hidilyn Diaz] message sends an inspiration to us all—that medals are within the reach of every athlete, given the outstanding support of the NSAs [national sports associations], the POC and government,” Tolentino said. “Any negativity in the meeting had no place in the festive environment.”
Tagaytay City first welcomed the Olympic medalists three weeks ago when they were presented their respective four house-and-lot units given to them as a gift by Tolentino.
The other Olympians were pole vaulter EJ Obiena, boxer Irish Magno, runner Kristina Knott, golfers Yuka Saso, Bianca Pagdanganan, Juvic Pagunsan, shooter Jayson Valdez, weightlifter Erleen Aldo, swimmers Luke Gebbie and Remedy Rule, gymnast Carlos Yulo, judoka Kiyomi Watanabe, rower Cris Nievarez, skateboarder Margielyn Didal and taekwondo jin Kurt Barbosa.
A total of 42 out of the 52 POC regular members attended the assembly either physically at the Grandmasters Café or online. Those present underwent Antigen tests and wore face masks and face shields and observed social distancing throughout the proceedings.