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Over P600,000 was given away as cash incentives by the Department of Education (DepEd) Region VII to the Central Visayas athletes who won medals in the 2009 Palarong Pambansa.
The awarding was done yesterday during DepEd’s Recognition and Awarding Program for the Palarong Pambansa 2009 Medalist and LGUs at the Pavilion DepEd Ecotech Center in Lahug, Cebu City.
“Every year we were able to generate savings that’s why this year, we were able to give cash incentives to our athletes,” said DepEd 7 Regional Director Recaredo G. Borgonia.
Borgonia has made several attempts to give cash incentives in the past but it is only this year DepEd was able to fulfill its promise. “At least we fulfilled our promise.”
More than 50 athletes and some Local Government Unit (LGU) officials attended the awarding.
A gold medalist was awarded P5,000 while a silver medalist got P3,000. A bronze medalist, meanwhile, took home P2,000.
16-year-old Daniel Noval of the Labogon National High School of Mandaue City was able to receive a total of P12,000 after winning gold medals in the 100 and 200 meter dash and a bronze in the 4x100 relay.
According to Noval, he will be using his prize in helping his family renovate their house and establish a water connection.
He also hopes that Mandaue City mayor Jonas Cortes will stick to his promise of giving him cash incentive for his gold medals so that he can use it in his training.
Multi-awarded swimmer Loren Dale Echavez, on the other hand, won a total of P14,000 for her gold medals in the 100 and 800 meter freestyle events and bronze medals in the 400 and 200 meter freestyle.
“This is one of our strategy to encourage our athletes to do better and hope that they will aim for excellence in their performance in the coming years,” said Borgonia.
Central Visayas Regional Athletics Association (CVIRAA) finished at the fourth place in the 2009 Palarong Pambansa held last May at the Leyte Sports Development Center in Tacloban City.
National Capital Region (NCR) defended their overall title while Region VI and Region VI-A finished second and third, respectively.
