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Kiddo Trinidad removed from National Skateboard team for SEA Games 2019

by Rysa Antonio

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.

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.

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As of today, I want everyone in the skateboarding community and the Philippines to know that I have been removed from the list of skateboarders who will compete for SEA GAMES, despite being the champion in the regionals and overall champion for the nationals. 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. (same thing that happened to Karla and the others) This also happened to another participant named CL Paje, the overall champion for Men’s GOS, also not informed about being removed from the competition only to find out that they have pre-selected skateboarders, instead of the competition winners prior to the national championship. We don’t know if their strategy is not to update you regarding your status, pretend like there’s no update from the head of their Assoc, provoke you until you end up ranting on social media so they will use it against you. There you go, instant “bad attitude”! If not siding on the evilness means having a “bad attitude” well, we’d love to have attitude problems all day, every day. Call us the baddest attitude club for all we care about. We’d rather look evil and fight for the right thing than to look good and do bad things to people who worked hard for their dreams. They don’t want us on their team because we resist, we speak the truth and we fight when something is wrong and not fair. THEY NEED PUPPETS, NOT ATHLETES! Our battle won’t end here. And definitely, not our dreams. If there is something that will end, I hope it’s the awful-thrash-manipulative-evil-corrupt system. Albert Einstein once said “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.” #SEAGAMES2019 #PuppetsNotAthletes #Skateboarding #PuppetsNotAthletes #PuppetsNotAthletes #PuppetsNotAthletes #PuppetsNotAthletes

A post shared by Kiddo Trinidad (@kiddokidda) on Nov 24, 2019 at 7:55pm PST

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.