BEIJING—As the defeated Philippine delegation brings home today stories of what-might-have-beens in Beijing, Southeast Asian rivals will have in their luggage another bumper crop of medals from the 29th Olympiad which ended Sunday.

Thailand once again leads the region in the medal tally with four medals—two golds and two silvers. Four other countries in the region won at least a medal each while the Filipinos, the overall champions of the Southeast Asian Games only three years ago, will have no metal among its souvenirs.

But Bacolod Rep. Monico Puentevella, the Philippines team’s chief of mission, has an explanation – the medals came with a stiff price.

“They spent more for sports,” Puentevella said. “They had bigger budgets, even more than double ours. They made sports a priority in government. What did you expect?”

He was quoted earlier as saying the Philippine Sports Commission was given a budget of only P70 million for each of the last three years. This year’s budget, however, has been increased to P250 million.

Puentevella said he would propose the revival of his pet project, the Batang Pinoy, which aims to develop promising youngsters even before they are 12 and concentrate on sports in the Olympic and Asian Games programs.

“If we start now, we might get lucky in London in 2012,” he said. He vowed to deliver a privilege speech in the House of Representatives

Indonesia, with one gold, one silver and three bronzes, has the most number of medals with five. Malaysia, Singapore and even Vietnam have a silver each.

Thailand’s two golds came courtesy of veteran boxer Jongjohor Somnit and woman weightlifter P. Jaroenrattanatarakoon.

Jongjohor, who was a disappointed second round loser to eventual gold medalist Toledano Gamboa of Cuba in Athens four years ago, came back with a vengeance and routed another Cuban fighter, Andris Laffita Hernandez, 8-2, in their flyweight finals match on Saturday.

He became the third Thai to win a boxing gold medal in the Olympics.

Featherweight Somluck Kamsing did it first, in Atlanta in 2000, and light welterweight Manus Boonjumnong pulled it off in Athens in 2004.

Jaroenrattanatarakoon topped the women’s 53-kg division in weightlifting two days after the Aug. 8 opening ceremonies to become the first Southeast Asian gold medalist in Beijing.

The veteran Boonjumnong failed to defend the light welterweight boxing title he won in Athens four years ago. He lost badly to Felix Diaz of the Dominican Republic, 12-4, in the gold medal match also on Saturday.

Thailand’s other silver was won by Buttree Puedpong, who was a happy loser to China’s Wu Jingyu in the gold medal match of taekwondo’s women’s under-49kg category.

Indonesia’s gold came in the men’s doubles in badminton with Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan beating the Chinese pair of Fu Haifeng and Cai Yun in the finals. The Indonesian mixed-doubles team of Liliyana and Nova Widianto settled for the silver after losing to China’s He Hanbin and Yu Yang in the finals.

Another badminton player, Maria Kristin Yulianti, took the bronze in the women’s singles while two weightlifters, Eko Yuli Irawan (men’s 56 kg) and Triyatno (men’s 62 kg), also won the bronze to complete Indonesia’s five-medal haul.

Malaysia looked like it would win its first ever gold medal in the Olympics when Lee Chong Wei went all the way to the final match only to lose to China’s Lin Dan in straight sets. Lee settled for the silver.

Going into the Beijing Games, Malaysia had won three Olympic medals—a silver and two bronzes—all in badminton.

Another Southeast Asian silver medal was won by Singapore’s women’s team in table tennis—Feng Tianwei, Li Jia and Wang Yue Gu—in the event where China won all four gold medals at stake.

It was the first medal won by Singapore since weightlifter Tan Howe-Liang won a silver in the 77kg category in the 1960 Rome Olympics for the island-state’s only other medal so far.

Vietnam’s silver—also its second medal since first joining the Olympics in 1952—was won by Hoang Anh Tuan in the 56-kg division in men’s weightlifting. Vietnam’s first medal, also a silver, was won by Tran Hieu Ngan in women’s featherweight class in taekwondo in Sydney in 2000.

After Beijing, Indonesia remains the most successful campaigner in the Olympics so far with six golds, nine silvers and 10 bronzes for a total of 25 since joining the Games in 1952. All of its gold medals came in badminton, which changed Indonesia’s Olympic fortunes when it was included in the Olympic program in 1992 in Barcelona. There, the Indonesians swept all three medals in the men’s singles.

With its two golds in Beijing, Thailand overtook Indonesia in the number of golds won with seven. With four silvers and 10 bronzes and a total of 21, Thailand still trails Indonesia in the all-time medal count.

The Philippines is third with nine medals consisting of two silvers and seven bronzes, but this figure has remained the same for the last three Olympics. Since Mansueto “Onyok” Velasco won the country’s last medal—a silver—in Atlanta in 1996, it has been a long, long drought for the Philippines.