MANILA, Philippines - Philippine Sports Commission chairman Harry Angping has further increased the incentives for Filipino athletes competing in the 25th Southeast Asian Games in Laos in December.

Barely weeks after raising the ante for those who will win the gold, the PSC chief yesterday announced another hefty raise in the cash reward, making this SEA Games the richest for national athletes.

Angping said that on his own initiative, he was able to raise P4 million from the private sector, and that he intends to raise another six in the days and weeks heading to the biennial event in Dec. 9-18.

“I have another good news for the athletes,” he said before saying that an extra P100,000 will go to the gold medalists, on top of the P100,000 from the national government and another P100,000 from the PSC.

“This means that a gold in the SEA Games is now worth P300,000. And if you win three gold medals (swimmer Mark Molina won four in 2007 in Thailand), you get P900,000 for a merry, merry Christmas,” said Angping.

In the past, a gold in the SEA Games is only worth P100,000. And just in case any athlete wins three golds, then his cash reward will be very close to the P1 million incentive for a bronze medal in the Olympics where a gold is worth P5 million and a silver P3 million.

Angping also said that on Thursday, the 153 athletes who will be funded by the PSC to Laos will receive P2,500 each as additional incentive. They will receive another P2,500 on Nov. 15 and another on Nov. 30.

“The checks are ready, and on Thursday when I host lunch for them at the PSC canteen I will hand them out. Starting on Nov. 27, they will also start receiving vitamins from Unilab through a pact worth P7.2 million,” he said.

Angping identified the other donors as Discovery Suites and Sterling Bank (P2 million), Cecilio Pedro of Lamoiyan Corp. (P1 million and another $10,000 for the swimming team) and Pacific Online-Tagaytay Highlands (P1 million).

“I intend to raise P10 million and if I manage, then we can have something for the silver and bronze medalists as well as the coaches. But for the meantime let me concentrate on the gold medalists first,” said the former congressman from Manila.

All the 153 athletes under the PSC list will also enjoy free lunch at the PSC canteen from Nov. 2 until the SEA Games where each of them will get an additional $100 pocket money on top of the $30-a-day stipend. They are all entitled to monthly allowances of P15,000 each.

“With all these incentives, the report I’m getting from my staff and monitoring team is that the athletes have changed their attitudes in training and are now pro-active. All they wanted to know is if the PSC can keep these promises. Yes, the PSC will do all these,” Angping added.

Last month, he also said performing athletes may get monthly salaries of up to P50,000 from the PSC.

Yet, Angping refused to make any prediction, on how the RP athletes would fare in Laos.

“All bets are off. Right now I’m working on the incentives. So there will be no predictions. Let’s just hope for the best,” he said.