Mayor Ondo gives cash incentives to Ormoc winners of EVRAA

Mayor Edward C. Codilla congratulates coach Benjie Inong for winning the gold medal for his secondary boys basketball team at the recently held Evraa meet. The team received P20,000 from the mayor’s office and another P7,000 from the city’s Special Education Fund for its feat. On the far left is city administrator Francis A. Pepito and on the rightmost is Schools Division Supt. Pedro T. Escobarte Jr.

ALMOST P1 million in cash incentives were given out by the local government unit (LGU) and Department of Education (DepEd) Ormoc City Division to athletes and coaches that reaped medals at the Eastern Visayas Athletic Association (Evraa) meet. Ormoc hosted the school-based sports meet last Jan. 31 to Feb. 6.

The Ormoc Division placed third in this year’s annual sporting event, hauling 41 gold 43 silver and 52 bronze medals in all 17 regular and five demo sports events. This is the first time for the LGU to give out incentives to Evraa-winning athletes to inspire them to give their best performance at the Palarong Pambansa on Apr. 10-16 in Legaspi City, Albay.

The LGU gave P20,000 to teams that won gold medals, P18,000 for silver and 3,000 for bronze. For individual athletes, it gave P5,000 for every gold, P3,000 for every silver and P2,000 for every bronze medals. The LGU further gave P3,000 each to 41 coaches (17 elementary, 24 high school) of the winning teams and athletes.

On the other hand, DepEd also released its counterpart incentives, giving P7,000 to winning teams that earned gold, P5,000 for silver and P3,500 for bronze medals. For individual athletes, DepEd gave P1,500 for every gold, P900 for every silver and P700 for every bronze medal won. It did not include the coaches in the incentives.

The LGU spent P836,000 for the endeavor (P382,000 for elementary and P454,000 for high school)  which it sourced from the sports development fund of the mayor’s office. On the other hand, DepEd spent P139,600 for the incentives which was sourced from the LGU’s Special Education Fund.

For the elementary division, the teams that won gold medals are in football boys and swimming girls (4x50 meter breaststroke and 4x50 medley relay). The girls swimming team also won a silver medal in the 4x100 meter medley relay (MR).

For the secondary division, the teams that won gold are in boys basketball, boys sepak takraw and girls volleyball. Girls futsal is the only team that won a silver medal. Hauling bronzes are the teams from girls athletics for the 4x400m relay, girls swimming (4x50m MR and 4x50m FR) and girls basketball.

The individual athlete in the elementary level who hauled the most medals is arnis player Ann Julia Aseo who won golds in the solo and espada y daga categories as well as silvers in solo baston and doble baston. She received P16,000 from the LGU and P4,800 from DepEd or a total of P20,800.

The most bemedalled individual athletes in the secondary level are Ejaymark Castillo and Christopher Horca also from the arnis team. Castillo won golds in the solo baston, bantamweight and likha anyo espada y daga categories while for Horca, it’s the solo baston, doble baston and bantamweight.

Horca and Castillo received P15,000 from the LGU and P4,500 from DepEd or a total P19,500 each. Mayor Edward C. Codilla congratulated the athletes and reminded them not to neglect their studies. “Ako lang gihangyo sa atong mga athletes nga dili lang ang atong pagka-atleta ang paniguroon. Ang importante ang atong pag-eskuwela,” he said.