First Filipino Olympic gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz will receive P3 million and a fully furnished house and lot from the Philippines’ chief executive.
President Rodrigo Duterte, in a courtesy call via Zoom with the history-making athlete, said his office would give Diaz P3 million on top of the P10 million she was already supposed to receive from the government according to the law.
The house and lot will be in in Diaz’s hometown of Zamboanga City, Duterte said.
Duterte will also give Diaz a Presidential Medal of Merit.
Diaz earned the Philippines’ first-ever Olympic gold medal in the women’s 55-kg weightlifting event after she finished with a total score of 224 kg.
‘Let bygones be bygones’
Duterte also told Diaz to “just forget” the difficulties she had faced in her journey to gold.
“Salamat naman sa pagtiis mo. I hope that the years of toil, the years of disappointments
and the years na hindi maganda ang nangyari in the past, just forget them,” he said.
“You already have the gold — gold is gold. And it would be good for you to just let bygones be
bygones and dwell solely on your victory together with your family and of course with the nation,” Duterte added.
Diaz was earlier included in an unproven “ouster plot matrix” allegedly aimed at kicking Duterte out of office.
Diaz had said that the inclusion of her name made her fear for her life and the safety of her family, but on Thursday, she said she had already forgiven the government. John Ezekiel J. Hirro