Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) President Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino made the announcement during the meeting of the POC executive board on Thursday.

Filipino athletes will be participating in 38 of the 40 sporting events that will be contested in the Vietnam SEA Games.

However, Tolentino explained that the number could still be shortened as they are basically entries by numbers culled from discussions with the various national sports associations early this week.

“The basis of selection primarily hinged on those athletes who won medals [of any color] in the 2019 SEA Games that we hosted,” Tolentino uttered.

“We also looked at events where the potential of winning the gold medal is very high, as justified by an athlete’s or athletes’ performance in 2019,” he added.

During the 2019 SEA Games hosted by the Philippines, the country fielded its biggest ever delegation at 1,115 athletes. The host nation victoriously emerged as overall champions, winning a record 149 gold medals.

The Vietnam organizers scheduled a March 21 deadline for the submission of entries by numbers. The deadline for the entries by names is in August.

The list was presented and approved by the POC executive board which met on Thursday afternoon in Parañaque City.