SEA Games 2019: Muslim athletes suffer shortage of halal food, despite repeated reminders from Philippines’ Islamic body

Philippines Muslim officials are hoping SEA Games organisers can work quickly to ensure a sufficient supply of halal food to visiting delegations after some teams complained about a shortage of meals for their Muslim athletes.

Ramadan Aguan, information officer with the National Commission for Filipino Muslims (NCFM), said games organisers had ignored reminders from the body to serve halal food, which means no pork and meat that is slaughtered according to Islamic rituals.

Food issues and other logistical problems prompted the Singapore team’s chef de mission, Juliana Seow, to write a letter of complaint to organisers PHISGOC. Even non-Muslim countries were unhappy about the food, saying the menu is limited, it lacked the nutritional value needed for athletes to perform, while drinking water was also scarce.

“We have some sort of problem because the organisers of the SEA Games have not been able to provide halal food,” Aguan told the SCMP. “Our organisation sent many reminders to them to make sure they have sufficient supplies of halal food but for some reason, we don’t know why, they did not consider it.

“We hope the problem can be resolved soon and we are confident that it will,” added Aguan, who said the issue is being addressed at the highest levels.

Singapore is one of a number of nations fielding Muslim athletes, along with Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. Apart from the food, Games organisers have been accused of incompetence over a number of transport and accreditation problems, with arriving teams left stranded at the airport or being sent to the wrong hotel.