Duterte pledges fully furnished house and lot for Hidilyn Diaz

Olympic gold medal-winning weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz on Wednesday night paid a courtesy call on President Rodrigo Duterte, with the Chief Executive pledging another house and lot to the history-making athlete.

In a virtual courtesy call with Diaz, Duterte offered to give Diaz a "fully furnished" house and lot in her hometown of Zamboanga City.

Duterte said he would give Diaz an additional P3 million from the Office of the President on top of the P10 million she would receive by law from the government.

He said Diaz would be awarded a presidential merit medal for bringing honor to the country.

"As expected the nation is ecstatic about your achievement. Your achievement is the achievement of the Philippine nation," Duterte said.

"We are extremely proud. We cannot express even in the words how we should really be shouting Hallelujah!" he added.

Diaz bagged the gold in the women's 55-kg category to end a near century-long Olympics gold medal drought since the Philippines first saw action in the Games in 1924.

Aside from Duterte, various officials, agencies, and private companies have offered Diaz incentives amounting to at least P33 million. 

"I hope that the years of toils, the years of disappointments, and the years na hindi maganda ang nangyari in the past, just forget them, you already have the gold. Gold is gold," Duterte said.

"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," he added.

Diaz in 2019 was mentioned in an alleged plot to oust Duterte.

It was Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo, who was then concurrent presidential spokesman, who disclosed the matrix.

Panelo then cleared Diaz in the supposed oust-Duterte plot and blamed the media for "faulty analysis."

Earlier in the day, Panelo maintained that there was no need to apologize over Diaz's inclusion in the matrix.

Panelo said he only apologized to Diaz for hurting her feelings.

“Madali mag-apologize kung mali ang ginawa mo. Pero kung wala ka namang ginawa... Ano bang ginawa ko? I just presented the matrix upon the instructions of the President. Wala naman ako kinalaman,” Panelo said on ANC.

“You cannot apologize for something you have not committed,” he added.

In an interview after her Olympic victory, Diaz mentioned that her inclusion in the matrix was one of the many challenges she had to face en route to her historic feat. —NB, GMA News