San Miguel Corp. big boss Ramon S. Ang sweetened the pot for Filipino athletes who will win medals at the Tokyo Olympics by pledging additional cash incentives.
Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) President Bambol Tolentino disclosed Tuesday that the avid sportsman is offering P10 million for every gold medal, P5 million for silver and P2 million for bronze as an added boost for the 19 PH athletes seeing action in the Games slated July 23.
The development brings the total cash incentives of P30 million for every gold medal, P15 million for silver and P6 million for bronze.
The Manny V. Pangilinan Sports Foundation has earlier pledged the same amount of incentives for Filipino Olympic medalists, matching the amount that the Philippine government will give under the law.
No Filipino athlete has won the Olympic gold but Tolentino is confident it is within reach.
“We will win that gold as one,” said Tolentino during the Philippine Sportswriters Association Online Forum.
“That will be our battlecry. Definitely meron yan (Olympic gold medal).”
The 19-athlete PH team boasts of world champions Nesthy Petecio (boxing) and Carlos Yulo (gymnastics), world silver medalist Eumir Marcial (boxing), world No. 6 pole vaulter EJ Obiena, US champion Yuka Saso (golf), and 2016 Rio Olympics silver medalist Hidilyn Diaz (weightlifting), to name a few.
Completing the cast are sprinter Kristina Knott, swimmers Luke Gebbie and Remedy Rule, rower Cris Nievarez, weightlifter Elreen Ando, skateboarder Margielyn Didal, shooter Jayson Valdez, judoka Kiyomi Watanabe, taekwondo jin Kurt Barbosa, boxers Carlo Paalam and Irish Magno, and golfers Juvic Pagunsan and Bianca Pagdanganan.