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.

Tan will officially turn over the P32 million-worth, three-bedroom condominium unit at posh McKinley Hill plus P3 million to Yulo in that same event.

It will also be at the Hilton where Yulo and