Tuesday, September 09, 2008 City owes P3M to local athletes
ABOUT P3 million worth of incentives from the City Government of Baguio has yet to be given to local athletes who have competed and won in the regional, national and international sporting events.
City Sports Coordinator Edison Villafuerte said the amount was based on the 2007 record only and does not include the current year where several local athletes have excelled in some sports competitions in and out of the region.
Some of these sports events include the regional Cordillera Administrative Region Athletic Association, Palarong Pambansa, and the 24th staging of the biennial South East Asian (SEA) Games, which was held in Thailand.
Also expecting incentive awards are Marianne Mariano and Benjie Rivera, who won bronze medals in the recently concluded Beijing Olympic Games in China.
"We are still awaiting the budget to be approved by the City Council but we are assuring our athletes their incentives will be given once the money is available," Villafuerte said adding the City Council has yet to approve the budget for the incentives of the athletes which will be taken from the supplemental budget of 2008.
Villafuerte said incentives for winning athletes were conceptualized to encourage athletes to strive and perform better. This is also the city's support to the National Government's effort to provide athletes support and encourage them to excel in their field.
"The provision of cash rewards was made possible through a city ordinance institutionalizing the allotment of a regular fund for the program as part of the Annual Sports Development Program of the City Government," Villafuerte added.
The incentive will be a local counterpart of the implementation of Republic Act (RA) 9064 or Athletes Incentives Act, the first sports bill signed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo which grants incentives to medallists of the Olympics, Asian Games, four-year world championships and SEA Games. (R.Osis)
