Sixteen years ago, Rey Saludar stood atop the podium in Guangzhou, China, giving Philippine boxing what remains its most recent taste of Asian Games gold.
The country has since produced Olympic medalists and several continental podium finishes.
What it has not produced is another Asian Games champion, and that wait will now extend into a fifth cycle.
Carlo Paalam went closest to breaking the drought at the 20th Asian Games in Japan, reaching the men's 55kg final before falling to hometown fighter Rui Yamaguchi by split decision on Friday. His silver was the Philippines' lone boxing medal in Aichi-Nagoya, preserving the country's unbroken run of podium finishes since the sport became an official Asian Games event in 1954.
However, this campaign has underscored a more consequential reality: The established stars are getting older while the next wave is yet to make the same impact on the continental stage.
Paalam lost 3-2 on the judges' scorecards, with three judges awarding the bout to the Japanese fighter (29-28) and two scoring it for the Filipino (29-28 and 30-27).
The decision drew criticism from Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (ABAP) president Marcus Manalo, who questioned the scoring and said the result was "a robbery." Paalam himself said he believed he had done enough to win.
But the decision, whatever the debate surrounding it, is only part of the story.
The bigger concern is how little room there was for anyone else to carry the campaign.
Paalam was the lone member of ABAP's original seven-athlete contingent to reach the medal rounds.
Eumir Marcial, the Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist, withdrew before the Games after ABAP decided against putting him through a demanding turnaround following his latest professional fight. Olympic medalists Nesthy Petecio and Aira Villegas were eliminated in their opening bouts, and Junmilardo Ogayre, Riza Pasuit and Norlan Petecio also failed to advance.
The result left Paalam carrying the weight of a drought that had already spanned four Asian Games cycles.
The succession question becomes more pressing when the calendar turns to Doha in 2030. Paalam will then be 32, Nesthy Petecio will be 38, Villegas 35, Ogayre 33, Pasuit 37, Norlan Petecio 28.
Those numbers do not determine who will be in the ring four years from now. They do, however, underline the challenge facing ABAP as it looks beyond a group that has carried the national program through multiple Olympic and Asian Games cycles.
There is little indication from this campaign that a successor has emerged to immediately assume that responsibility. That does not mean the pipeline is empty, but the results in Aichi-Nagoya offered little evidence that the next generation is ready to take over.
For a program accustomed to producing medalists, that distinction matters.
Team Philippines travelled to Japan hoping its Olympic pedigree could finally translate into the boxing gold that had eluded it since 2010. Instead, it leaves with one silver medal, questions over officiating, and a succession challenge that can no longer be pushed into the next cycle.
Manalo acknowledged the need to keep moving forward.
"We will not stop," he said.
There is little time to dwell on what might have been. The Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Riyadh run from Dec. 11-21, while the world championships in Kazakhstan in April 2027 will provide the first major qualification event on the road to the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Those competitions will offer younger boxers opportunities to emerge. They will also test whether ABAP can replenish a pipeline that has relied heavily on a proven cast for much of the past decade.
Paalam's silver was, therefore, both a continuation and a warning. It kept the country's podium streak alive but it could not end the wait that began after Saludar's triumph in 2010.
Now, someone else will eventually have to carry it forward.
The question is who will be ready.