The event was held last week at the Philippine Embassy Compound inside the Diplomatic Quarter.
Ambassador Ezzedin H. Tago, in his welcome remarks, emphasized that this year’s competition focused on memorization, an innovation from previous competitions of reading the verses from the Holy Qur’an. “The idea is to encourage Filipino Muslim youth in the Kingdom to memorize the Qur’an,” said Tago.
The program proper was opened by reading of verses from the Holy Qur’an by Ahmad Khudori from  the Indonesian Embassy.
Diplomats from ASEAN and Arab League member countries and members of the Filipino community attended the event.
The competition was divided into two categories; Category A for boys and girls below 14 years old and Category B for 15 to 20 years old.
Nadhir was declared champion under Category A with an average score of 97.6 percent and Mohammad K. Musa was second with an average score of 96.0 percent, followed by Manal K. Musa with a score of 95.3 percent.
In Category B, Batua was declared champion by the all-Arab board of judges with a perfect score of 100 percent, Yaseen Masorong Khalil placed second with an average score of 93 percent and a close third placer, who got an average score of 92.6 percent, was Nurshahid H. Sappari.
Tago and chairman of the board of judges, Sheikh Abdulaziz Abdulghani Ahmad Al Shalafi, awarded the prizes to the winners. The embassy hosted a sahoor meal after the event.