ARCHERS DOMINANT, TO GET CASH INCENTIVES; CITY GIVES PHP3K TO ALL BP ATHLETES, COACHES

February 11, 2023 Community Billboard

Nearly 400 athletes and coaches Thursday received PhP3,000 each as share of the PhP3 million
reward the city got for winning the Batang Pinoy National Finals in Vign, Ilocos Sur in December last year. New archery sensation Jathniel Caleb Fernandez got his share but what awaits him is a
hefty reward for bringing home six gold medals in the 16-year old and younger competitions that
was stoed for three years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

He will be joined fellow archer Chass Mhaiven Colas as the two were the most bemedaled athletes during the BP games in the Ilocos Sur capital. Fernandez won the 10m, 15m, 20m, 30m,140, and Olympics round gold medals that entitles him to PhP120,000 on PhP20,000 per gold medal. “He will get a big incentive,” said assistant city sports development coordinator Paul Rillorta and will be the first to receive such windfall under the new City Sports Development Code which recently had its amended implementing rules and regulations ratified by the city council.

Another archer, Chass Mhaiven Colas is expected to cash in his winnings – one individual gold, two team and doubles mints and five silver medals. With his medal haul, Colas is expected to receive nearly PhP90,000 from the PhP20,000 for his individual gold, a third of the PhP20,000 for the team event and half of the PhP20,000 for the doubles event, while PhP10,000 from the silver medals he won. Actually, the son of a single mom working abroad stands to get PhP86,666.67 for his Batang Pinoy wins. Colas got his second gold with teammates Raizen Riley De Guzman and Rokai Tacudog in the U15 team event and Shayne Pawe in the U15 mixed team event.

Fernandez’s coach, meanwhile, stands to get PhP60,000, while Colas’s coach, John Hongitan of the Baguio City High School may receive in whole or the bulk of the PhP60,000 total bonuses. The two athletes were in the long queue Thursday afternoon at the Newtown Event Center where the city
government through the sports development office treated the athletes, coaches and parents to an early dinner in appreciation of their feat in making Baguio the top participating local government
unit in the event for four straight years, sans the pandemic years.

“This is in appreciation of your dedication and achievement,” summed mayor Benjamin Magalong during the ceremonies where all athletes, win or loss, were given an equal share of the prize money to the some 375 athletes and coaches, the biggest delegate to the event. The incentive is now twice
what athletes used to receive prior the passage of the sports code during the height of the pandemic in 2020. The 2020 Olympic medal winning athletes from the University of Baguio in 2021 were the first beneficiaries of the new incentives under the new sports code.

For winning silver medals, Nesthy Petecio and Carlo Paalam got PhP400,000, while Eumir Marcial received PhP300,000. Their respective coaches received a total of PhP550,000. The amount was
the biggest ever given by the city to any athlete. Bulk of the city’s gold medal haul came from Muay
Thai, taekwondo, judo, arnis, swimming, and wushu. Overall, Baguio delivered 31 gold, 30 silver and 39 bronze medals, or a total of 100 medals for Baguio, which won the overall title for four consecutive years.

Pigeon Lobien/ABN