If there was any a sliver of doubt that the SEA Games is a disgusting misuse of government power, then our national athletes taking to social media because of being routinely abused and dismissed by officials pretty much confirms what all of us have been thinking: SEA Games 2019 is a corrupt joke. One of the latest reports on the ongoing saga of SEA Games issues (and trust me, there are a lot), is overall national skateboarding champion Kiddo Trinidad being removed from the PH SEA Games roster for the most common reason people get punished in the Philippines: exposing the truth.
Read more: Skateboarder Jaime de Lange confident PH can bag gold in SEA Games
Her Instagram post reads, “I was removed because they wanted me to make a public apology for exposing the truth on social media. So when I declined, they removed me from the list—WITHOUT informing me, and WITHOUT ANY OFFICIAL/FORMAL LETTER.” She then goes on to identify other athletes who were also unfairly removed without warning, such as Karla Robelo and CJ Paje—both national bets for the skateboarding team.
We reached out to Kiddo to get her comments on the abrupt dismissal. She tells us, “The reason why [they removed me] they based on world ranking.” Kiddo questioned this explanation saying, “What is the sense of regional and national [competitions] if they will still base on world rankings?” Not only that, but if they had based on world rankings from the beginning then why was Kiddo added then removed as soon as she posted negative feedback about the treatment of the athletes?
“I will never clear their names because of what they did,” she stressed. But at the end of the day, we think Kiddo still won a battle bigger than the SEA Games. Bottom line for the national skateboarding champ? “For me, a real gold is when you have integrity and respect.” And that she does.
Read more: Sorry not sorry, but these sectors need that P50 million more