The Philippines first sent athletes to the Southeast Asian Games in 1977. Prior to 1977, the Southeast Asian Games were known as the Southeast Asian Peninsular Games. The country has hosted the games four times; in 1981, 1991, 2005, and 2019. The country's best finish at the games happened twice, both of them which they hosted: in 2005 finishing as overall champions of the games with Thailand and Vietnam finishing second and third in the overall medal standings. and in 2019 in which they beat their own 2005 medal record. Their best finish in the games, excluding editions hosted by the Philippines, was at the 1983 edition where they finish second behind Indonesia.