The House of Representatives is set to bestow the Congressional Medal of Distinction on boxers Nesthy Petecio, Carlo Paalam and Eumir Marcial for winning two silver medals and a bronze for the Philippines in the recently concluded Tokyo Summer Olympics.
Speaker Lord Allan Velasco, Majority Leader Ferdinand Martin Romualdez and Minority Leader Joseph Stephen Paduano have filed House Resolution No. 2093 congratulating, commending and conferring the Congressional Medal of Distinction to Petecio for her silver medal finish at the women’s featherweight final at the Tokyo Olympics.
Similar resolutions were filed for Paalam and Marcial, who have won silver and bronze in the men’s boxing flyweight and middleweight categories, respectively.
“Winning a medal at the Olympics was no easy feat as our boxers had to compete against the best athletes in the world,” Velasco said. “Nesthy, Carlo and Eumir are considered as our national heroes in sports.”
The Congressional Medal of Distinction is given to Filipino achievers in sports, business, medicine, science, and other fields.
Velasco said it was the same award given by Congress to weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz five years ago when she won a silver medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics.
The House recently adopted a resolution conferring the first-ever Congressional Medal of Excellence to Diaz for winning the country’s first-ever Olympic gold victory in the Tokyo Games.
Velasco said the Congressional Medal of Excellence was created to give honor and commendation to “exceptional modern-day national heroes in sports who win the gold medal in the Olympics.”
The last batch of the Olympic squad, which is mainly composed of the entire boxing team that won three medals during the final week of the event, flew in via Philippine Airlines flight PR427 and arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2 at around 5 p.m. Monday.
The boxing team was accompanied by Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino who earlier promised to give PHP3 million cash reward for an Olympic gold medal, PHP2 million for silver medal, and PHP1 million for bronze medal, as well as house and lot for medalists.
The most bemedaled boxing team later paid a virtual courtesy call on President Rodrigo R. Duterte, who gave them additional cash rewards on top of the incentives provided by law.
Duterte said Petecio and Paalam each will receive PHP2 million while Marcial will get PHP1 million.
He also said other Olympians who did not win medals will receive PHP200,000 each. (PNA)
