King Carlos comes home

Hero’s welcome for Olympic Champion

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 welcome Carlos Yulo when he returns home today.

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. today in the company of his band of supporters that include Gymnastics Association of the Philippines chief Cynthia Carrion.

Also on 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 Air Base where their respective families await.

They will then head straight to Malacañang where 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, like in the past, is also expected to hand Yulo 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 – a three-bedroom condominium unit worth P32 million from Megaworld, P6 million from the House of Representatives, P5 million from ArenaPlus, P3 million from Bounty Fresh and Chooks-to-Go, another 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 motor to the Hilton Manila fronting the NAIA Terminal 3 for a victory party to be hosted by Megaworld’s Kevin Tan.

It will 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 PSC chaired by Richard Bachmann, who arrived yesterday from Paris, was reset from today to tomorrow.

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 after his arrival.

The motorcade will start from Leveriza St., where Yulo grew up and was eventually discovered as a gymnast, then will pass through the Palace and 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’s because Yulo delivered the performance of a lifetime in Paris.

He left the country dreaming the dream and will return home as king.