The 33rd Southeast Asian (SEA) Games formally came to a close on Saturday night in Bangkok, and the post-mortem on the campaign of the Filipino athletes doesn’t look good.

Again, their quest for pride and glory in the biennial meet ran up against the cold, hard reality that they will really never achieve their targets due to the culture of politics, corruption and blatant cheating that appeared to have favored the athletes of the host country.

The medal tally tells the whole story.

Host country Thailand emerged as the runaway winner with more than 232 gold medals. On the other hand, second-placer Indonesia only had 91 golds while third-placer Vietnam was not far behind with 86. The Philippines, meanwhile, was fifth with only 50 golds, a performance that was way lower than its initial target of 60 mints.

Of course, this sluggish performance should not be blamed on the Filipino athletes. Reports of rampant cheating and head-scratching officiating to favor the athletes of the host country have surfaced, casting a dark shadow over the integrity of the event.

The world-class Filipino boxers, in fact, nearly suffered a complete shutout if not for the victory of Eumir Marcial in the penultimate day of hostilities on Friday. All in all, the Thais won 14 of 17 boxing golds, something that they won’t definitely accomplish if the Games were held on foreign soil.

Even the celebrated Gilas Pilipinas nearly lost the crown. A lot of questionable calls were made by the referees in the crucial stretch of their gold-medal match against the home team, prompting the Filipino cagers to dig deep into their well of experience to preserve a 70-64 win that gave them their 20th title.

Prior to that, there were reports of manipulation in other sports like taekwondo and gymnastics that saw no less than Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino and Gymnastics Association of the Philippines chief Cynthia Carrion ordering a recomputation of the final scores not just once, but twice.

These cases lead us to the uncomfortable — yet necessary — question: Is it still worth it?

Every year, the Philippine Sports Commission and private sponsors pour millions into developing, training, and preparing our national athletes for the SEA Games. The national sports associations and the POC do their part by sending their battle-hardened veterans and Olympic-level stars to dominate their regional counterparts and give glory to sports-loving Filipinos.

In short, we treat the SEA Games as a litmus test for Philippine sports — the Olympics of Southeast Asia.

But with the questionable officiating and manipulation of results, it’s time for us to rethink our strategy and avoid being made among the laughable characters in this circus disguised as a regional sportsfest.

We should start shifting our focus and paying serious attention to the “real battles” — the Asian Games, World Championships and the Summer Olympics.

Let’s quit putting the SEA Games on a pedestal. Instead, we should treat this meet as a high-level training ground for our young and hungry developmental athletes like the standouts of the Palarong Pambansa, Batang Pinoy, and other collegiate leagues.

By sending our “B Team” we remove the pressure of having to emerge on top of the medal tally, while giving our young athletes a bigger room to develop. We should remember that the gold medals that we will “lose” in the short term will be a small price to pay for the long-term dividend of giving our young athletes the experience they would need to compete at higher levels like the Asian Games, World Championships, and the Olympics — tournaments where the officiating is more professional and the playing field more level.

Let us stop playing their game by their rules. It’s time for us to invest in the future rather than chase prestige in the present, where every single gold medal is shrouded in doubt and controversy.