With three gold medals and a total of 18 — five silvers and 10 bronzes — medals won at the Olympics, it’s the most appropriate time for the Philippines to have its own Olympic House.

Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino rekindled his call on the government to take the lead in the establishment of a Philippine Olympic House, a campaign he championed for the past Olympic cycle.

“It’s about time,” said Tolentino, who was a special guest at the ground-breaking ceremony for Malaysia’s Olympic House that will rise at the Kuala Lumpur Sports City before the weekend. “I would confess that I wish we have the same here in the Philippines.”

Tolentino represented the POC in the ground-breaking ceremony — enthusiastically graced by no less than Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim — as well as the Olympic Council of Asia, where he’s the chairman of the Legal Committee.

The Philippines never had a headquarters it can call home since the POC’s establishment — then called the Philippine Amateur Athletic Federation — in January 1911.

“That’s a long time and we just celebrated the Philippines’ 100th year participation in Paris 2024 where we made a breakthrough of all breakthroughs with Caloy’s (Carlos Yulo) two gold medals in gymnastics,” Tolentino said. “Before that in 2021 in Tokyo (2020), Hidilyn Diaz made is all cry for pride and joy with our first Olympic gold medal.”