RIYADH, 12 February 2004 — The Second Philippine International School (SPIS) in Riyadh filed a complaint with the Order of the Knights of Rizal (OKOR), Middle East and Africa Council, over the disqualification of its contestant, Christian E. Tan, in the on-the-spot painting contest, during the First Inter-School Talents, Skills, and Academic Area Competition-2004 in Manama recently.
“The SPIS contestant in the on-the-spot painting contest was disqualified since he used mixed media. The contest committee, having not known that mixed media was allowed in the contest, decided to disqualify SPIS’ contestant after reviewing all the entries,” Mohamed Ali Carlito L. Astillero, KGOR and area commander for the Middle East and Africa Council, told Arab News yesterday.
He said that after receiving the complaint from Evelyn V. Noman, SPIS assistant principal, he forwarded it to the host chapter commander, journalist Joe Avancena, for immediate action. He said that the judges allowed the use of mixed media, thereby setting up two categories in the competition: standard painting and mixed media painting. “The judges, however, failed to elaborate and impress upon the contest committee the use of these categories in the competition, particularly the mixed media,” he said.
Astillero said the contest committee established that there was miscommunication between the board of judges and the contest committee. “As host, the Eastern Province Chapter accepts full responsibility and deeply apologizes for the miscommunication,” he said.
He said that the committee had also declared that the Al-Khobar Asian International School (AAIS) was the winner in the standard painting competition and SPIS the winner in the mixed media category. He further said that Tan would get recognition by awarding him the winner’s trophy and certificates.
When contacted, Noman said, “SPIS is still dissatisfied with the decision. The guidelines say that there is only one winner in the on-the-spot painting contest. Declaring our contestant the winner in the mixed media contest seems to have been intended to make us keep quiet. Since it was declared the decision was final we could do nothing more but send a letter expressing our dissatisfaction,” she told Arab News.
Aside from the painting win for AAIS by Pearl Joyce A. Malagapo, other categories included in the competition included Battle of the Brains (won by SPIS); essay writing, SPIS; Young Maria Clara 2002, AAIS; and Young Jose Rizal, AAIS.
The leading schools during the competition and their respective scores included AAIS, 81 percent, SPIS, 76 percent; Philippine School-Bahrain (PSB), 61 percent; International Philippine School in Jeddah (IPSJ), 59 percent; Nour Al Maaref International School (NIS), 51 percent; and Philippine School Doha Qatar (PSDQ), 40 percent.
— With reporting from Gemma Bautista and Francis Salud.