The Philippine embassy in Morocco on Thursday launched a logo-making contest to increase people’s awareness about the relations of the two countries which is set to reach its golden anniversary in 2025.

In an interview with the Philippine News Agency, Philippine Ambassador to Morocco Leslie Baja said the diplomatic relations between the Philippines and Morocco started on April 10, 1975.

However, Philippine embassy in Rabat was shut down 27 years ago due to budgetary concerns.

“The embassy reopened only in 2020 and was closed for 27 years prior to that. So, in this sense, the last two years, we had a lot of catching up to do,” Baja said.

Nonetheless, the Philippines signed a number of agreements with Morocco and the first of which happened in 2004.

“It is the Joint Commission on Bilateral Cooperation. We hope to have that joint commission hopefully running this year. This is a high-level commission chaired by the foreign ministers of the Philippines and Morocco,” he said.

He added the country was able to sign more agreements with Morocco during former Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr.’s visit last year.

These include air service agreement; agreement on the hosting of political consultations; memorandum of understanding between the Foreign Service Institute and the Moroccan Academy for Diplomatic Studies; and the agreement between the Moroccan Press Agency and the Philippine News Agency.

Logo-making contest

The contest is the first activity that the Philippine embassy is jointly organizing with the Moroccan embassy to move forward toward the celebration of the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

“So, this is a competition that is open to all residents of Morocco and the Philippines and the deadline of submission is on the 30th of June of this year,” Baja said.

He noted the winning entry or chosen logo will be used for both embassies’ year-long anniversary celebration beginning April 10, 2024 up to April 10, 2025

“Some of the mechanics that we have identified is that the logo must be emblematic of what the Philippines and Morocco have, and reflective of their relations for the last 50 years, so we look forward to some creative submissions,” he said.

The Philippine embassy in Rabat and the Moroccan embassy in Manila are giving PHP50,000 cash prize to the winner or its equivalent in Moroccan dirhams. (PNA)