BAGUIO CITY March 26 – The Cordillera office of the Department of Education announced that it was able to source out funds to provide for a significant increase in the incentives of athletes and coaches who will be bringing home medals in the upcoming Palarong Pambansa in Vigan City, Ilocos Sur on April 16-21, 2018.
Lawyer Sebastian Tayaban, chief of the DepEd-CAR’s administrative and finance division, said that regional director May Eclar approved the proposal of regional sports officials for the increase in the incentives of athletes and coaches who will be able to win medals during the national sports competition.
For gold medal winners in the Palarong Pambansa, the athletes will be receiving P5,000 cash incentive, silver medalists will be getting P3,000 cash incentives and bronze medalists will be receiving P2,000 cash incentives.
Tayaban also announced that coaches and chaperons will also be entitled to the prescribed increase in incentives and allowances for the duration of the national sports competition in Ilocos Sur.
Previously, gold medalists were entitled to P3,000 cash incentives, silver medalists were getting P2,000 cash benefits and bronze medalists will be entitled to P1,000 cash incentives.
For this year’s Palarong Pambansa, the DepEd official revealed that the region was able to get a budget of some P6.2 million which is much lower compared to the P12 million budget that the region received last year.
However, he explained that the reduction in the region’s palaro budget this year is understandable because of the shorter distance from the city to the palaro venue, thus, the region was able to source out some additional P2 million from its regular budget to augment the funds that were taken from the central office for the staging of the premier sports competition.
Tayaban claimed that the cash incentives that will be given by the regional office to the region’s medalists will be over and above the cash incentives being granted by the different local governments where the athletes and coaches come from.
DepEd officials expressed confidence that with the significant increase in the cash incentives to be given to the region’s medallists during the Palarong Pambansa, athletes and coaches will be inspired to do their best in bringing home medlas in their sports disciplines and help in improving the region’s standing in the national sports tournament.
Last year, the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) placed fifth overall after the conduct of the sports competition in Antique which was a big improvement from the region’s previous ninth place finish a year ago.
Regional sports officials are confident that the athletes who were selected to join the different sports events in the Palarong Pambansa are doing their trainings in their provinces and cities so that when there will be a comprehensive training prior to their departure to the venue of the sports competition, they will be ready for the expected stiff competition from the athletes coming from the different regions of the country.
Bulk of the region’s expected medal haul will come from individual and combative sports aside from the expected improvement of the region’s delegates to the different team sports.**By Dexter A. See
