SEAG officials declare PH as the 2019 overall champion

The prized athletes that made this possible (Aaron Favila)

By: Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

Garnering a total of 98 gold medals as of December 8, 2019, 4:30 PM., the Philippine Olympic Committee chair Steve Hontiveros already called it, stating that the rest of the participating countries can no longer catch up with the PH’s gold tally.

“We got this. We are overall champions. Other countries don’t have much left to get gold medals from,” he said.

Indonesia is currently in second place with 62 gold medals while Vietnam is in third with 53 gold medals.

With three competing days left in the 30th Southeast Asian Games, even if the other countries clinch the remaining gold medals, the total would still be behind PH’s tally.

“This should give interest to the government and the private sector to support all the athletes in all the sports because they will realize their money won’t go to waste,” Hontiveros said during an interview.