MANILA, Philippines — It’s going to be a merry Christmas for all Filipino medalists in the 30th Southeast Asian Games.

President Duterte announced additional cash incentives will be given away to all members of Team Philippines who won medals of any color upon the conclusion of the regional meet Wednesday, 11 December 2019.

The Chief Executive will hand out an extra P250,000 to all gold medalists, P150,000 for silver, and P100,000 for bronze.

The awarding of incentives will be held on Dec. 18 when Team Philippines, which regained the overall championship of the SEA Games after a 14-year wait, pays a courtesy call to the President at Malacanang.

The financial reward will be on top of the regular incentives given to all medal winners in the biennial meet under Republic Act 10699 otherwise known as the National Athletes and Coaches Benefit and Incentives Act.

Under the law, gold medal winners in the SEA Games are to receive P300,000 each, silver medalists P150,000 and bronze winners P60,000.

During the sendoff for Team Philippines, Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Abraham “Bambol’ Tolentino promised to match the P300,000 financial reward the government will give to all medal winners.

As the 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games came to a close Wednesday, medal-winning Filipino athletes are set to walk away with hefty windfall.

Instant millionaire

Filipino gymnast Carlos Yulo, who scooped up 2 gold medals and 5 silver medals in his maiden stint in the biennial meet, is set to become an instant millionaire.

Under Republic Act (RA) 10699 or the National Athletes and Coaches Benefits and Incentives Act, athletes will receive P300,000 each for gold, P150,000 each for silver, and P60,000 each for bronze.

For doing the Philippines proud, Yulo is guaranteed to receive some P1,350,000 in monetary rewards.

Fellow Olympics-bound athletes EJ Obiena and Hidilyn Diaz will also receive P300,000 each for bagging gold in their respective sporting events.

It took Obiena 4 Games to score the top podium finish in pole vault. He also broke the previous SEA Games record of 5.35 set by 2017 champion Porranot Purahong of Thailand.

Meanwhile, it was the first SEA Games gold medal for Diaz, who already has an Olympic silver medal and an Asian Games gold medal in her collection.

For team events with fewer than 5 participants, (RA) 10699 states that the team shall receive the same cash incentives for individual medal winners, which will then be divided equally among the team members.

For competitions with 5 or more participants per team, each team member shall receive 25 percent of the cash incentives for individual medal winners.

The Philippine team took home 10 gold and 5 silver medals in dance sports. (LO/IAMIGO/CNS)