The 23rd Southeast Asian Games was formally opened last night with a grand spectacle in Luneta Park. It was apparently the first time the opening ceremony was held in a public park and not in a national stadium. The entire production was well-accompanied by the majestic performance of the San Miguel Philharmonic Orchestra and the San Miguel Master Chorale under the direction of Ryan Cayabyab. I noticed that only relatively small fractions of each participating country’s delegation attended the parade, probably because most of the athletes and officials are either in training or are already in Cebu, Bacolod or Subic.

DAY 1 Medal Tally (November 27, 2005)
	COUNTRY	Gold	Silver	Bronze	TOTAL
1.	Philippines	5	5	4	14
2.	Malaysia	5	2	3	10
3.	Indonesia	2	1	1	4
4.	Vietnam	1	4	3	8
5.	Singapore	1	0	1	2
6.	Thailand	0	2	5	7
7.	Myanmar	0	0	1	1
8.	Brunei	0	0	0	0
	Cambodia	0	0	0	0
	Laos	0	0	0	0
	Timor Leste	0	0	0	0

Some of the events have taken place even before last night’s ceremony. After the first official day of the games, the Philippines ended up with an early lead at the medal tally with 5 gold medals courtesy of: Marestella Torres ( women’s long jump); Shiela Mae Perez and Cesiel Domenios (women’s 3-m synchronized springboard dive); Michael Men­doza and Belinda Agora (latin category dance); Rico Rosima and Filomena Salvador (standard category dance); and Ronato Alcano (15-ball billiards).

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