PHILIPPINE Olympic Committee (POC) president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino picked two of the most recognizable and influential athletes in 2025—tennis sensation Alexandra Eala and volleyball pillar Bryan Bagunas—as flag bearers for Team Philippines in the parade of athletes of the opening ceremony of the Thailand 33rd Southeast Asian Games in Bangkok on Tuesday (December 9).

“Popularity aside, Alex and Bryan have made impacts in the global sports community and that makes them the best choice to carry the flag in the SEA Games,” said Tolentino on Tuesday, adding that the Philippines has been assigned a 300-member delegation—that could possibly be trimmed to 200 because of the year-long mourning for Queen Sirikit and the Songkhla disaster—during the march around the Rajamangala National Stadium in the opening ceremony.

The Philippines is fielding close to 1,700 athletes in the SEA Games that programmed 574 events in 50 sports and which will now be played in two main hubs—Bangkok and Chonburi—after Songkhla was written off because of massive flooding.

Eala’s rise in tennis has been close to phenomenal—she’s now the highest-ranked Filipina in Philippine tennis history in the Women’s Tennis Association, having been the first Filipina to get past the first round of the US Open.

Bagunas, on the other hand, was the main man of the Alas Pilipinas Men’s Team in the FIVB World Championship last September, spearheading a history victory—over many-time African champion Egypt—in an FIVB competition and was instrumental in that “win that got away” against another Asian powerhouse, Iran.

Tolentino said that the choice for flag-bearer or flag-bearers have always been an important task of the POC and athlete or athletes who have the most impact and inspirational appeal not only to national athletes but to the Filipino youth gain the most premium in the selection.

“It’s about the inspirational appeal, the motivation and hard-work that reaps accomplishment that make an athlete or athletes the best choice for the chore,” Tolentino said.