Arianne Mae Trinidad or “Kiddo” is the latest athlete to have been allegedly removed from the official roster of Filipino players in the 30th Southeast Asian Games.
She claimed that she was slashed from the list for supposedly refusing to apologize in “exposing the truth in social media.”
Trinidad also wrote that she and other skateboarders were accused of having a “bad attitude” by sports officials.
The 25-year-old previously bagged a gold medal in the Game of Skate for women’s division last July.
“I was removed because they wanted me to make a public apology for exposing the truth on social media,” Trinidad wrote on her Facebook.
“This also happened to another participant named CL (Charles Louise) 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,” she continued.
Paje is a skateboarder from Caloocan who won gold in the men’s division of Game of Skate earlier this year.
Trinidad also mentioned that the “same thing” happened to other players like “Karla.”
While she didn’t mention any further names, the “Karla” she might have been referring to is Karla Robelo, one of the skaters who sent a letter to the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC)
“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!” Trinidad continued in her post.
She was one of the skateboarders who previously aired their concerns to the PSC through a letter, alleging that eligible players for the 30th SEA Games and the World Roller Games were excluded by the Skateboarding and Roller Sports Association of the Philippines Inc.
Other skateboarders who spoke up include Paje, Julie Ann Gabas and Rodri Arthem Alvaro.
Reports mentioned that players like Trinidad were replaced by supposedly handpicked athletes in a “closed-door deliberation” who failed to win in SEA Games qualifying events.
The case of James De Los Santos
Trinidad was not the only one who was reportedly slashed from the Philippine roster of official SEA Games players.
Decorated karateka James De Los Santos also shared that he was struck out from the list due to alleged politicking in The Karate Pilipinas (KPI).
In a Facebook post dated November 20, De Los Santos claimed that he was “wrongfully” evaluated in a closed-door setting, as well as replaced in an unusual manner.
“The proper way to unseat a National Team member is to defeat him/her in the Philippine National Games. This kata player that they are replacing me with had the opportunity to compete with me in front of World Karate Federation referees at the last PNG Senior level in 2018 and he chose not to,” De Los Santos wrote.
He is a six-time consecutive National Games senior gold medalist.
De Los Santos claimed that he was replaced by the “son of the KPI Vice President” who has “junior level” achievements.
KPI, for its part, said that its coaches independently performed the selection process which included determining a player’s “technical performance, athletic performance and attitude or mindset.”
“Like any other selection process, it is always unfortunate that some athletes do not make the cut,” the organization said.