City allots P1.2 million for Petecio, Paalam, Coaches

August 15, 2021 Metro BLISTT

Nesthy Petecio and Carlo Paalam will be the first beneficiaries of the recently passed Sports Code where each of them will receive PhP400,000, aside from PhP200,000 each for their coaches.
Mayor Benjamin Magalong on Wednesday said that the city is preparing PhP1.2 million for Petecio, Paalam and their coaches for winning silver medals in the Tokyo Olympics.
Signed last March 27 by Magalong, the two Olympic boxers will receive the biggest incentive by the city to athletes after their triumph in the biggest stage for amateur boxing where they got silver in women’s featherweight and men’s flyweight, respectively.
It will be the biggest single payroll for any city recognized athlete since incentives for winning athletes were
introduced in 1992 by the late councilor Narciso Padilla.
“I have them prepare the checks already, all we need are two documents, their certificate of achievement and official result,” said Magalong Wednesday afternoon after signing the implementing rules and regulation of the sports code earlier in the morning with councilor Levy Lloyd Orcales.
Finance officers though first questioned the amount since same ordinance stated that the maximum for any single athlete is only PhP100,000, but Magalong said that the Olympics is a special case and staged every four years only.
In the case of the Tokyo hosted sports event, five years.
“That is the accumulated one year maximum,” said the former police major general, who is an avid boxer.
Under the same ordinance, their respective coaches will also receive half of what they will get or PhP200,000 that resulted in their winning the silver medals despite stiff competition and their first time.
“We are preparing PhP1.2 million in total,” the mayor told RNG Luzon after the weekly Ugnayan at the Baguio City Hall multi-purpose hall.
Set to get PhP200,000 are coaches Reynaldo Galido and Nolito Velaso, who are both under Australian head coach Don Abnett.
Petecio lost to Japanese Sena Irie in the finals, while Paalam fell to Galal Yafai of Great Britain despite a gallant last round stand where he scored in all judges’ card. Petecio is enrolled at the University of Baguio at the School of International Tourism Hotel Management after finishing an associate degree, while Paalam was enrolled as senior high school.
Last January, the two received PhP30,000 each from the city after their incentives were approved by the city council and after their golden performance in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games. Irish Magno, who lost in the round of 16 in the women’s flyweight, got PhP20,000 for the silver, while Aira Villegas had PhP10,000 for her bronze performance.
Taekwondo poomsae jins Jeordan Dominguez and Justin Kobe Macario are also set to get PhP30,000 for the gold medal won in the Asian Taekwondo Championship held in Beirut, Lebanon last June also.
Dominguez is a former two time world champion and a gold medal winner in the last SEAG, while Macario has won a silver in an Asian competition in 2019. He is also a former member of the National University high school team and is now wearing the yellow jacket of University of Santo Tomas.
Pigeon Lobien/ABN