Grand homecoming set for Yulo, other Paris bets

MANILA, Philippines – After carrying the country’s Olympic campaign and later the Philippine flag with boxer Aira Villegas in the closing ceremony of the Paris Games Sunday, it's time for the whole country and its 115 million population to fetch Carlos Yulo when he returns home Tuesday.

Yulo, along with his two glittering gold medals in floor exercise and vault he captured in the French capital, is scheduled to plane in at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in the company of his band of supporters that included Gymnastics Association of the Philippines chief Cynthia Carrion.

Also in that chartered flight are boxers Villegas and Nesthy Petecio, who accounted for the country’s other two medals with a bronze each.

From the airport where he will be received by a Philippine Sports Commission welcoming committee, Yulo, together with the other Olympians, will proceed to the Villamor Airbase where their respective families await.

They will then head straight to Malacañang where no less than President Marcos will receive Yulo and personally ask him what needs to be done to produce more Filipino Olympic gold winners like him.

The Chief Executive, just like in the past, is also expected to hand out the P20 million incentives — P10 million per gold — via the Expanded Athletes Incentives Act.

Marcos may even throw in a bonus the way he did with Filipino gold winners in the Southeast Asian and Asian Games before.

That is apart from the bounty Yulo is expected to receive — P20 million from the government via the Expanded Athletes Incentives Act, P6 million from the House of Representatives, P5 million from ArenaPlus, P3 million from Bounty Fresh and Chooks-to-Go, P3 million from Megaworld, P2 million from the City of Manila and possibly more from the Manny V. Pangilinan Sports Foundation.

From the Palace, Yulo will travel back to the Hilton Manila in Newport Blvd in Pasay fronting Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in the evening for a victory party Megaworld’s Kevin Tan is hosting.

It was Tan who promised Yulo a P32 million-worth, three-bedroom condominium unit at posh McKinley Hill plus P3 million for winning two Olympic golds.

It will also be at the Hilton where Yulo and the rest of the Olympians will stay for a night.

That is not counting the Tagaytay house and lot from Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham Tolentino and a smorgasbord of delights like lifetime free travel from the Philippine Airlines, an eat-all-you-can voucher from Vikings and P1 million worth of SM products among others that Yulo was promised from left and right.

The Philippine International Convention Center welcome event prepared by the PSC chaired by Richard Bachmann was reset from Tuesday to Wednesday.

There will be a parade on the same day.

The city of Manila, through Mayor Honey Lacuna, will also honor its decorated son, who hails from the streets of Leveriza, in a grand parade that is scheduled a day or two after his arrival.

The motorcade will start from Leveriza where Yulo was born, grew and eventually discovered as a gymnast and pass through the Palace, the university belt before culminating at the Manila City Hall where its mighty citizen will be given his due reward.

The hero’s welcome is expected to be as big, if not bigger, than the ones received by Hidilyn Diaz, who delivered the country’s breakthrough Olympic mint in the Tokyo Games three years ago, as well as those from boxing legend Manny Pacquiao.

And it was because Yulo delivered the performance of a lifetime in Paris.

He left the country dreaming the dream and will return home as a king as it should be.