The House Committee on Youth and Sports Development has approved a bill increasing the cash incentives granted to national athletes and coaches on Tuesday, August 24.
Authored Bohol 3rd district Representative Kristine Alexie Tutor, House Bill No. 8388 or "An Act Further Expanding the Coverage of Incentives Granted to National Athletes and Coaches, Amending For The Purpose Section 8 of Republic Act No. 10699 or the National Athletes and Coaches Benefits and Incentives Act" was approved subject to amendments.
In her explanatory note, Tutor said there is a “need to increase the cash incentives under the law to reflect” the country’s gratitude towards the enormous work and sacrifice of national athletes and coaches have put to bring pride and honor to the Philippines.”
The solon added that an increase in incentives will also encourage Filipinos to engage in sports.
Under HB No. 8388, there will be an increase of cash incentives of gold, silver, and bronze medalists of Asian level competitions, South East Asian (SEA) Games, and ASEAN Para Games.
For Asian Beach Games, Asian-level competitions held every two years with at least 25 countries participating, and qualifying competitions for World-level and Asian-level games, the incentives will increase from P500,000 to P600,000 for gold medalists; P250,000 to P350,000 for silver and P100,000 to P150,000 for bronze medalists.
For SEA games, incentives for gold medalists will increase form P300,000 to P400,000; P150,000 to P250,000 for silver and P60,000 to P100,000 for bronze.
For the ASEAN Para Games, the incentive for gold medalists will increase from P150,000 to P250,000; P75,000 to P125, 000 for silver and P30,000 to P50,000 for bronze.
The House panel also moved to include the funding provision in the bill, which will still be subject to the approval of the Committee on Appropriations.
The provision read as follows: "The additional funding requirement necessary to implement the increase of cash incentives of this Act shall be sourced from the 50 percent national government share in the gaming revenue under Presidential Decree No. 1869.”