Onyok Velasco gets chicken store as late reward after Olympic win

  MANILA – Olympic medalist Onyok Velasco has received a surprise reward of his own roasted chicken store 25 years after he won the Olympics. Velasco won a silver medal in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. However, the boxer said he never received some of the pledges he was promised following his win. This week, food brand Chooks-to-Go announced that it rewarded Velasco his own store of the roasted chicken franchise, plus P100,000 (Dh7,692) "in recognition to his service to the country". "We’re giving one Chooks-to-Go store to Onyok because as a Filipino we owe it to him for bringing honor to our country. We are also giving him an additional P100,000 so that he can have his long-delayed honeymoon in Boracay with his wife May," Chooks-to-Go president Ronald Mascariñas said in a statement. Velasco said he was surprised with the gift. "I thought I also won in the Tokyo Olympics since I got a store from them," he said, adding that it will be an additional source of livelihood for his family. The boxer previously revealed that some of the pledges promised to him never materialized after he won the Olympics more than two decades ago. The unfulfilled pledges included a P2.5 million (Dh192,307) reward from Congress. The Office of the President blamed government negligence in the matter and said it will give P500,000 (Dh38,461) to Velasco. Velasco’s plight surfaced after Hidilyn Diaz, the Philippines’ first Olympic gold medalist, received pledges including a house and lot, cars and more than P40 million in cash. Velasco said he hoped Diaz would get all the gift pledges to “encourage other athletes to really strive hard in their sport”. Velasco shared that a businessman pledged a lifetime allowance of P10,000 (Dh769) per month, which stopped after only one year. He also said he never received the pledge from the Philippine Navy for scholarships for his two children. He shared, however, that he did receive a house and lot as one of the pledges, but that he has yet to receive the title to the property. CAM/Expat Media
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