Filipino Olympians To Have Morale Boost From The President
Filipino Olympians – Filipino athletes will be rejoicing as President Duterte announced that his government will be giving more support to the athletes going to the Rio Olympic Games.
In a report by PhilStar, Duterte said that he will be collecting money from tax evaders to support the training of these Filipino Olympians. He also said that the “oligarchs” in the Philippine have been earning huge amounts of money while Filipino athletes are having scarce in terms of support from the government because of limited resources.
Duterte explained that the “oligarchs” or the “elite” in the country are having contracts with the government making them benefit a lot from them and, according to the President, are not paying taxes.
He said this during the send-off of the Filipino athletes to the Rio Olympic yesterday, July 18. The President welcomed the officials and the athletes from the Philippine Olympic Committee and the Philippine Sports Commission in Malacañang Palace.
The Philippine will be sending twelve athletes in the 2016 Rio Olympics but only six of them made it to the courtesy call. The six athletes are from taekwondo (Kirstie Elaine Alora), weightlifting (Hidilyn Diaz and Nestor Colonia), track and field (Marestella Torres), table tennis (Ian Lariba), and golf (Miguel Tabuena).
The other six athletes were still training abroad. They include Charly Suarez and Rogen Ladon from boxing, Eric Shawn Cray and Mary Joy Tabal from track and field, and Jasmine Alkhaldi and Jessie King Lacuna from swimming.
During the presentation of the delegation, President Duterte opened up the P300-million loss per day on the Philippine government because of smuggling. Then, he assured the athletes that they will be getting more support from the government in the coming days as these the money will be taken from the tax evaders.
The report added that Duterte ordered to triple the allowance of the Filipino Olympians from $1,000 to $3,000. The officials who will be accompanying will have $5,000 from $4,000 as allowance.
The President then urged the athletes to do their best during the games as it is both an honor and opportunity to represent the country.
Duterte even joked that he will even reward athletes with “unoccupied islands” if they could bring home medals.