Left Photo: The official logo of the event; Right Photo: Philippine Ambassador to Qatar Wilfredo C. Santos is joined during the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the event last 17 July by Thai Ambassador Piroon Laismit (leftmost in blue shirt), Mr. Saeed S. Al-Ghanim (Qatari partner of Nayong Filipino, a Doha-based Filipino restaurant that served as one of the main sponsors), Indonesian Ambassador and Chairperson of the ASEAN Committee in Doha Deddy Saiful Hadi, Vietnamese Ambassador Nguyen Hoang, and Singaporean Ambassador Wong Kwok Pun. Partly hidden behind the Singaporean Ambassador is South Korean Ambassador Heung-kyeong Park.

22 July 2015 – In conjunction with its economic and cultural diplomacy thrusts, the Philippine Embassy in Doha, in cooperation with the Filipino community, successfully held the 2015 Eidl Fitr Filipino Food Festival last 17-19 July at the Tent along Dafna Hi-Way between the Philippine Embassy and Qatar University.

“This event combines the Filipinos’ love for food, as well as the important celebration of the Eid. Essentially, an Eidl Fitr celebration with a distinctly Filipino flavor,” Philippine Ambassador to Qatar Wilfredo C. Santos said.

The food festival aims to further promote Filipino cuisine, not just among Filipinos, but also to the Qatari and other expatriate communities in Qatar. “By highlighting Filipino food, we promote the Philippines in general both to Qataris and expatriates, We intend to follow up on this event by holding more and large scale Kulinarya events in Qatar,” Ambassador Santos added. 

The huge crowd and enthusiastic response to the three-day event is also due to the long Eid holiday in Qatar.

This event also serves as a showcase for all Filipino restaurants in Doha to further entice other Filipino entrepreneurs in Qatar to explore the food business that will cater to the ever-expanding Filipino population in the country. With its resounding success, the Embassy aims to make this Eidl Fitr Filipino Food Festival a regular annual event, as well as organize other more large-scale culinary events to showcase Filipino cuisine and tourism in Qatar. Such events will form part of the economic and cultural diplomacy program of the Embassy.

Among the participants in this food festival were the local franchises of Gerry’s Grill, Jollibee, and Chowking. 

Booths for Overseas Voting (OV) registration, tourism promotion, SSS, Pag-IBIG and OWWA membership also took part in the event to make the Embassy and POLO’s services more accessible to the public. A total of 340 new registrants and seven (7) requests for transfer of registration were processed by the OV Registration booth. END