PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will personally hand to athletes their additional bonuses for winning medals—gold, silver or bronze—in the recent Nakhon Ratchasima 24th Southeast Asian Games during the Team Philippines courtesy call tomorrow in Malacañang.

Besides the bonus from President Arroyo, Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) chairman William Ramirez said all 228 athletes who contributed to Team Philippines’ 41-gold, 91-silver and 96-bronze haul in the biennial meet will also be released on the same occasion.

“We are happy to announce that Pagcor [Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.] has already approved the release of P10.3 million in incentives for our medalists in the SEA Games, and it will be given on Saturday by no less than President Arroyo, who will also give a surprise bonus to them,” said Ramirez.

“This goes to show na mahal ng ating Presidente ang mga atleta, and being the country’s No. 1 sports fan, she really wanted to make sure that our athletes will have a merry Christmas,” Ramirez announced in a press conference yesterday where he was joined by PSC commissioners Ritchie Garcia and Eric Loretizo.

Ramirez, however, does not know what or how much President Arroyo’s bonus to the medal winners will be, but stressed it would be on top of the cash incentives under Republic Act 9064, or the Athletes, Coaches and Trainers Incentive Act.

Under the act, a gold medalist in individual events in the SEA Games is entitled P100,000, while those who clinched silver or bronze would receive P50,000 and P10,000 each, respectively. Their coaches get half of the amount.

Team events command a different scheme, while those who break Games records are also entitled to a separate incentive.

Miguel Molina, with his four gold medals that earned him the Male Most Valuable Player award in the Games, stands to receive the most incentives, while Henry Dagmil (hammer throw) and Daniel Coakley (50-meter freestyle for swimming) would receive extra bonuses for breaking the Games records.

Ramirez clarified, though, that only the athletes will receive their incentives tomorrow. The coaches will get theirs at a later date.

The Philippines failed to keep the overall title in the Games and finished sixth, its worst since joining the biennial meet in 1977.

Ramirez said he intends to sit down with sports leaders and stakeholders in January to dissect the dismal performance, which was way off the 113 gold, 84 silver and 92 bronze medals won in the 2005 Manila edition.

“It is important for us as sports leaders to talk together and see what went wrong in our performance in the Thailand SEAG,” Ramirez stressed.

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