10 December 2014 – The Philippine Embassy in Mexico participated in the annual ASEAN Bazaar on November 22, organized by the resident missions of five member countries of the ASEAN Committee in Mexico City (ACMC), namely, the Embassies of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam.
The 2014 ASEAN Bazaar was held at Galeria Plaza de las Estrellas mall in Mexico City, where the five embassies erected booths selling traditional products and food items from the ASEAN region. The opening ceremony was led by the current ACMC Chair, Malaysian Ambassador Dato’ Jamaiyah M. Yusof, who delivered words of welcome to the invited VIPs, including Mr. Pablo Lozano, Assistant Director-General for Asia-Pacific from the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ambassador Sergio Ley López of the Mexican Business Council for Foreign Trade, Investment, and Technology (COMCE).
Ambassador Yusof was then joined by the four other ACMC members on stage: Mr. Syarif Alatas, Head of the Indonesian Chancery and Chargé d’Affaires a.i.; Philippine Ambassador to Mexico Catalino R. Dilem, Jr.; Thai Ambassador Chirachai Punkrasin; and Vietnamese Ambassador Le Linh Lan. The five ACMC members opened the Bazaar with the ringing of a traditional gong.
The guests were then invited to watch a series of cultural presentations from each of the five ASEAN countries represented, which involved displays of traditional dances and martial arts from Southeast Asia. The Philippine Embassy staff presented the jota moncadeña, as well as an exhibition of arnis de mano by Third Secretary and Vice Consul Mikhal de Dios and Consular Assistant Fernando Carillo, Jr.
Interspersed throughout the program were regular draws for the ASEAN Raffle, with prizes donated by the five ACMC member embassies.
Finally, the cultural program culminated in the joint ASEAN fashion show, in which each embassy showcased the distinctive designs of various traditional attires from their respective countries.
The invited guests and the rest of the audience also sampled the regional delicacies provided by the ACMC members, and then took a tour of the bazaar booths to see and purchase Southeast Asian wares and food items. END