JAKARTA – Gold medals continued to drop in trickles for the Philippines Monday in the Southeast Asian Games here, as the Nationals relied on a pair of familiar faces and, surprisingly, a contingent competing in a sport that just made its debut.

World No. 1 Dennis Orcollo outclassed local campaigner Ricky Yang in the finals, 7-2, after turning back the challenges of Chan Keng Wang of Singapore (7-5) in the quarter-finals and another Indonesian in Mihammad Zulfikri in the semi-finals, 7-4.

Also striking gold for the Philippines were Margarito Angana in wrestling and the bridge team made up of lawyers, executives, and academicians ranging from ages 20 to 70.

Angana copped a second straight gold medal in the 55-kg. division of the Greco-Roman, while the butler pair of George Soo and Gerry Alquiros defeated 17 other opponents in the final round of the card game bridge.

The three-gold collection in Day Four of this biennial sportsfest has now padded the Philippines tally to eight. As of press time and based on the meet’s official website, the Nationals have collected 12 silver and 15 bronze medals and is still lodged at a lowly sixth spot.

Host nation Indonesia sustained its pace of leaving the rest of the field behind in the race for the overall championship, claiming a total of 45 gold, 33 silver, and 28 medals. Indonesia is eyeing to win the overall title for the 10th time since this event started in 1959 as the Southeast Asian Peninsular Games in Bangkok.

Thailand, visibly unaffected by the natural disaster that hit it recently, is running second (24-23-26), with Vietnam at third with 20 gold, 19 silver, and 27 bronze medals. Singapore, behind the strong showing of its swimmers, is at fourth (13-12-19) while with 10 gold, 12 silver and 20 bronze medals is Malaysia for fifth place.

Yet the Philippines may still collect more successes late in the day.

Iris Ranola was eyeing to make it a sweep for the country’s singles events in 8-ball, advancing to the semi-finals after beating Suhana Dewi of Malaysia, 5-4, in the quarter-final round.

Nestor Cordova, on the other hand, padded his way to the gold-medal round of the 2,000-m single sculls rowing competitions that got under way at the Cipuli Lake Monday.

Racing in lane 3, Cordova broke away early in the three-man race to top his heat with plenty to spare. No official times were yet established for the race after the computers at the venue site bogged down.

“Masarap ang pakiramdam,” said the 34-year-old Murcia, Negros Occidental native, who took over the the spot of teammate and two-time SEA Games champion Benjie Tolentino and won a  silver medal in the doubles sculls with Alvin Amposta at the 2007 Thailand SEA Games.

For winning his heat, Cordova will take his spot in Wednesday’s finals.

The country’s men’s basketball quintet, meantime, began its title defense it won in 2007 on an easy note, plastering lowly Cambodia, 128-68.

UAAP Rookie of the Year Kiefer Ravena nearly had a flawless game by shooting 8-of-8 from the field to finish with 17 points, and four other Nationals had outputs in double figures.

RR Garcia had 16 points, Garvo Lanete 15, Nico Salva 14, Dave Marcelo and Chris Ellis each poured in 12 points while Bobby Ray Parks contributed 10 for the Nationals, known as Sinag Pilipinas.

In 2009, no basketball competitions were held.