24 June 2015 - As part of the Philippine Embassy in Oslo’s 2015 work plan to promote the Philippines as a tourist destination, the Philippine Honorary Consul in Reykjavik Maria Priscilla Zanoria organized a Philippine cultural night last June 20 at  Vidalinskirkja (Church Community Center) in Gardabær.       

Philippine cuisine was served during the event, as members of the Filipino community, including third generation Filipino-Icelanders, some as young as nine years old and garbed in Filipiñana attire, gamely performed popular Philippine folk dances such as Singkil, Tinikling, Pandango sa Ilaw and Curacha, while others sang Tagalog and Visayan songs. One of the performers was a Filipina who won the recent Iceland wide singing competition, Joanna Gaviola.

Some 150 people, a quarter of whom were native Icelanders, watched the cultural show while they dined on popular Filipino dishes such as pansit, sotanghon, lumpia shanghai, adobo and plenty others.

In his welcome speech, Philippine non-resident Ambassador to Iceland Bayani S. Mercado thanked Honorary Consul Zanoria and the Filipino community for organizing the event and asked them to encourage their Icelandic friends and co-workers to visit the Philippines since tourism generates jobs, which will be beneficial for their countrymen back home.

Ambassador Mercado also encouraged Filipino community members who are still Filipino citizens to register for and vote in the May 2016 presidential elections.

The Ambassador brought a two man consular team with him to Reykjavik that weekend who conducted e-Passport processing and overseas voters registration. There are about 3,000 Filipinos in Iceland. END