National athletes and coaches can now get their full allowances starting next week, Philippine Olympic Committee president Bambol Tolentino announced Thursday.

The monthly allowances were slashed into half since July after the budget of the Philippine Sports Commission’s were channeled to pandemic efforts.

But Tolentino, who was also Tagaytay Representative, was able to include a provision in the House Bill No. 6953 or the Bayanihan Act 2 an amount that would cover all the trimmed allowances over the past months.

“This is good news for our athletes who have become anxious and even lost their focus during the pandemic,” Tolentino said in a statement.

“With their allowances back to normal, they can now concentrate on their training.”

The Bayanihan Act 2 provides P180 million for national team members’ allowances.

“And that’s retroactive from July,” Tolentino said.

Athletes and coaches will also receive additional P5,000 as monetary assistance brought by the pandemic.

“The funds are now with the PSC and we expect the allowances to be back to normal on the next pay day for the athletes and coaches,” Tolentino said.

There are 996 athletes, 262 coaches, 280 differently-abled athletes and 82 para coaches in the national team. Their total monthly payroll is P41 million.