HIGHER INCENTIVES FOR ATHLETES SOUGHT IN SPORTS SUMMIT

October 5, 2024 Community Billboard

If there is one amendment to the sports code or City Ordinance No. 47, Series of 2021, city administrator wants that it be increase in the incentives. During the Ugnayan at the Public Information Office at the Baguio City Hall, city
administrator Bonifacio dela Pena said that the incentives are rather low. “I guess the athletes need higher incentives,” said de la Pena referring to the cash given by the city to winning athletes in regional, national or international competitions. Southeast Asian Games medal winners receive PhP30,000, PhP20,000 and PhP10,000 for a gold, silver or bronze medal for instance.

Dela Pena made the statement on the eve of the city sports summit by the city sports promotion and development council (CSDPC) that was supposed to be held last Thursday and Friday. However, CSDO IV Gaudencio Gonzales said the summit will be instead staged on October 11 at the Garden Plaza instead of the two day event last Thursday and Friday (October 3 and 4). The day long sports summit hopes to effect a possible amendment to the sports code passed during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sangguniang Kabataan Federation chair and councilor John Rey Mananeng said recently that the two-day sports
summit just hopes to identify other that was scheduled on said dates (October 3 and 4). This after mayor Benjamin
Magalong urged the body, during its June 21 meeting, to conduct the sports summit “as soon as possible” for the city
to have a sports program that will be to the benefit all those involved in sports. However, the staging of the summit was delayed with the city’s participation to the Palarong Pambansa in July.

It will be recalled during the CSPDC’s first meeting last June, the CSPDC including the cash incentives and financial
assistance that the city will give to winning athletes and their coaches. The old provision sets a PhP60,000 limit for cash incentive for athletes for athletes and PhP30,000 for coaches in national competitions, while for international competitions, the limit is PhP100,000 and PhP50,000, respectively. In Ordinance 96 passed in 2023, the limit has been “deleted allowing winning athletes and coaches to fully receive their cash incentives without limitations.”

Financial assistance, meanwhile, was limited to PhP10,000 but has been amended through Sec. 69 of the amending ordinance that it shall not be less than PhP10,000 but not more than PhP25,000 for national events and not less
than PhP50,000 but not more than PhP100,000 for international competitions. It added that “the City Sports Council shall determine the final computation for financial assistance to be extended through a Sports Council Resolution.”

Pigeon Lobien/ABN