Team Pilipinas’ Tokyo Olympics squad got another boost, Tuesday morning.
House Deputy Speaker Mikee Romero has added an additional incentive to medal winners for the Games that begin on July 23.
To whoever wins the country’s first-ever Olympic gold, Romero added an additional P3-million pesos, pushing the incentives to P33-million.
A silver will net an additional P2-million while a bronze will bank a million-pesos, all courtesy of Romero.
“Ang aking good news na out of my company’s expenses, itataya ko na to give additional motivation,” said the shipping magnate, who owns Northport, during the Tuesday’s edition of the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum which is powered by SMART and has Upstream Media as webcast partner.
Also committing earlier were Manny V. Pangilinan and Ramon S. Ang, who each pledged P10-million each for the athlete who will win gold.
For Romero, he sees three Team Pilipinas members who have a strong case to win gold. These are weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, gymnast Caloy Yulo, and golfer Yuka Saso.
“All are bemedaled and are champions worldwide. Pag tinignan mo ‘yung track record and background neto, pinagsama-sama lahat ng magagaling na atleta,” he said in the forum that is presented by San Miguel Corporation (SMC), MILO, Amelie Hotel Manila, Braska Restaurant, and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR).
“Our best bet is Yuka or Hidilyn, being the silver medalist last Olympics. We have Carlos Yulo, one of the most bemedaled during the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games with seven medals – two gold and five silver.”
The other members of Team Pilipinas are golfers Bianca Pagdanganan and Juvic Pagunsan; skateboarder Margie Didal; half-middleweight judoka Kiyomi Watanabe; weightlifter Elreen Ando (minus-64); boxing flyweight Carlo Paalam, middleweight Eumir Marcial, flyweight Irish Magno, featherweight Nesthy Petecio; pole vaulter EJ Obiena; flyweight jin Kurt Barbosa; rower Cris Nievarez; sprinter Kristina Knott; and shooter Jayson Valdez as member
