‘You already have the gold… let bygones be bygones,’ Duterte tells Olympic champion Diaz

President Duterte urged Olympic weightlifting champion Hidilyn Diaz on Wednesday to “let bygones be bygones,” two years after his government named the Filipina in a chart claiming to show a plot to undermine him.

Duterte spoke to the athlete in a Zoom call broadcast live on state television shortly after she arrived in Manila from Tokyo where she made history Monday winning the country's first Olympic gold medal.

Congratulating Diaz on her performance, the President pledged to reward her with three million pesos ($60,000) out of his own pocket, and told her to “forget” about “bad things” from the past.

“You already have the gold and it would be good for you to let bygones be bygones,” he told the 30-year-old.

Diaz, wearing her Philippine Air Force uniform with her gold medal draped around her neck as she sat in a room at the airport, thanked Duterte before saluting him.

In 2019 the Rio silver medalist was among dozens named in charts released by Duterte's then spokesman allegedly showing links between people he accused of plotting to “discredit this administration.”

The charts, which did not substantiate the accusations, included the names of opposition politicians, an exiled communist guerrilla leader, journalists and others.

“I am shocked. I am concerned for my security as well as that of my parents,” Diaz said at the time.

Salvador Panelo, who was the spokesman then and is now the president's chief legal counsel, said this week he had previously clarified Diaz was not part of the antigovernment plot, but was merely followed on social media by one of the suspects.

The “oust Duterte matrix” had been “misinterpreted,” Panelo told local media.

Diaz’s triumph has made her a national hero, alongside the likes of boxing legend Manny Pacquiao.

The feat is also a life-changing windfall for Diaz, the daughter of a tricycle driver in Zamboanga City.

In addition to the three million pesos offered by Duterte, she will receive 33 million pesos and two properties from the government and private sector.

She was also promoted to staff sergeant, earning her a P630 monthly pay increase from her previous rank of sergeant, the Armed Forces of the Philippines said.