2019 SEA Games panel comes out with new infographic to explain meaning behind controversial logo

The 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games organizing committee said the 11 rings in the controversial logo representing the 11 participating countries embody unity and togetherness.

In a new infographic posted on its Facebook page, the committee reiterated that the 11 colored rings — arranged to form the Philippine archipelago — represent the 11 participating countries and how the games unite them.

"Ever wondered what the 11 rings in the #2019SEAGames logo mean?... Each ring represents a country that will participate in this year's SEA Games... By joining the 11 rings together, the logo embodies ideas of unity and togetherness," the committee said.

The countries joining the 30th SEA Games are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam.

The overlapping rings, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano explained, show that "wherever and whenever the games are played, we are one and we win as one."

The logo, however, drew flak from netizens for supposedly being too simple.

Cayetano defended the logo, saying that if it is so simple it can be drawn even by an elementary student, then it must be a good logo. — MDM, GMA News