Check how whole PH squad performs

It doesn’t matter really if some call the Southeast Asian Games a regional intramurals and a tournament on the lowest rung of competitive preparations for the Olympics or a world championships. A tournament is a tournament and anytime Filipino athletes get a chance to test themselves in an international setting is always a welcome opportunity.
We’ll ask why we’re sending such a large contingent given how hard life is and especially after the typhoons have ripped through our country.  But our athletes need the exposure and the confidence that can be attained from a medal victory.  We cannot afford not to send a reasonable delegation because of the need for international exposure.
Some may say that we’re padding some lineups to improve our chances to crowd Indonesia for the top spot in the gold medal race.  Let’s get real here.  We may challenge the Indonesians in most sports but they’ll have the home crowd and cooking to keep them in good stead.  Being proud people, they will also not want to lose the overall plum since they’re also hosting the event.  So let’s win what we can win, without losing sight of doing well in every event.
We should cheer for every Filipino effort but we should also take a close hard look at the performances.  Are the times or distances good enough for a future Asian Games stint?  Is the team performance worthy of further support and international seasoning?  Are there new heroes in the Games because we badly need a new breed of athletic stars that Pinoys can idolize and support?
Let’s look at the medal tally but with the thought of spotting where we can improve on like in medal-rich sports like athletics, swimming, shooting and the martial arts. This is where the rest of the sporting world focuses its attention on.  Let’s stop complaining about the regional sports that each SEA Games host tries to insert to improve its medal chances and instead seriously look at our performances in Olympic sports.
We’re rightfully concerned about how our basketball team will fare but the hoops skill level of the Filipinos is beyond the reach of our Asean neighbors.  That is, unless some major naturalization moves are made that we don’t know of and there are now more American and European giants playing in the region.
But the basketball tournament should be the least of our worries.  Let’s worry about how the whole Philippine team performs.