PHILIPPINE SECTION: THE DREAM

By Dominador Agbayani

On April 15, 2012, a new set of queens will be crowned as Binibining Pilipinas 2012 to represent us in the Miss Universe, Miss International and Miss Tourism Queen International Beauty pageants. Beauty pageants divide pageant enthusiasts as they exchange brickbats when fighting for their queens. On the other hand, they also unite the people because they eventually root for the country’s representative as it becomes a source of pride for them most especially if they performed credibly in their international outing.

Years and years ago, the Filipina woman of the “kayumangging kaligatan” fame, once tagged as an “indio” by the Spanish conquistadores started to get out of the shackles of colonial labeling by being the Queen of the Carnival. The reference to the Dalagang Pilipina fame is but a rendition of how beautiful the Filipina is. The triumph of a small girl in the Miss Universe Pageant in 1969, Miss Gloria Diaz came as a great beacon light of hope to many young Filipinas who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. Why such an injustice? It is because the Filipina had been tagged as the prostitute in the Orient. They had been conjured images of mail order brides. They had been nothing but second rate copy cats. The victory in 1969 came as a joyous daybreak to once catapult to the arena that the Filipino woman is not only that of beauty, exoticism but brains and wit to that effect.

Four years later, another Filipina showed grace and élan in the country where mythology of the Gods and Goddesses started. Margarita Moran unwittingly snatched the crown from would be pretenders because of her royalty demeanor. Such act and class labeled the Filipina as one with “maharlika” (royal) bearing.

Years thereafter, the Filipina was still caught in the quagmire of vicious labeling. In the same vein, our beauty queens were trounced year after year in the pageant arena. Sometime in 1999, Mirriam Quiambao almost did it retouched with the Venezuelan formula. Thereafter, it was a lull and the seeming endlessness of the search for the right formula to win the crown never materialized. Even the Colombian training that went after Zorayda Ruth Andam failed to resuscitate the death throes of our aim to get the universal crown once again. Many people criticized the Colombian connection since that country never had the ability to make their bridesmaid performances realized into the eventual bride scene. The Philippine organizers were criticized further for sticking to an old formula when the criteria for beauty in the universal landscape are changing rapidly. And the Philippines is so resistant to change and firmly adhering with tradition and conservativeness.

The recent placement of Maria Venus Raj in 2010 and Shamcey Supsup in 2011 created new hopes for the Miss Universe hopefuls. As they say, Miss Universe is the pageant. And it is everyone’s gold standard for what a beauty pageant is. Pageant fanatics say that there is a certain prototype that the Miss Universe looks for. But look at Venus Raj. She had an unconventional beauty. On the same vein Shamcey had the standard beauty that was improved after she won. It is obvious that today, the Philippine organization in this case the Binibining Pilipinas Charities, Inc. had just accidentally stumbled on what the international pageant is looking for its queen. This is no time to rest on our laurels because for one, we did not win the crown. We just placed in the Top 5 and this is not enough to put us into tranquility. Now it is the time to rise from mediocrity. Now it is the time to lift the national pride through the beauty of the Filipina.

It would be fatal for the BPCI to overlook the urgency of the situation. The pageant circle is hungry for a win. The candidates are presently in a whirlwind of activities and are trying their best to show their best wares. Some did prepare long time ago. Some were only thrust into the pageant spotlight. Some are doing their lessons. But in the end, the organization will choose its winners.

There is this dream that I had. I saw that for the 2012 edition of the Binibining Pilipinas Beauty Pageant, rightful candidates were chosen based on their beauty, charm, proportioned bodies and their ability to project the totality of the New Filipina. I dreamt that the chosen ones are the girls that showed the epitome of grace, dignity and discipline. And I dreamt further that the girl who will win is an embodiment of the greater ideals of the Filipino people.

As we walk further, there those that may not be satisfied with the choices. We can never be satisfied. There would be more wants to be satisfied. Yes, we can never be. Even if we won the crown this year, we will yearn for more victories. We will yearn for more accolades. But in the end of the day, we must reminisce and see for ourselves where have we been so that we can chart our path again in response to the challenge of the changing times of the beauty landscape.

I wish therefore that the Beauty Pageant for 2012 will not only maintain the status quo. I wish that the pageant would look out of the box and see for them that there is a changing world out there and that we should adapt to that change that faces us. We may be left out again if we do not see the wisdom of what had happened in the two previous competitions.

That is my dream and I wished that it be granted.

WHO SHOULD DRESS THE FILIPINA BEAUTY QUEENS?

By Lavinia Otilla

When the topic of who should dress our Filipina pageant queens comes to a point of discussion, every pageant fanatic has a say. The discussion becomes heated to the point of being too emotional. Pageant fanatics have different standards of fashion. Quite understandably, it is because we all have different fashion senses. Fashion sense is not universal. It demands a cultural milieu hence, the apparent dislike of pageant gurus to foreign designers clothing our Filipina queens.

One of the common assertions of pageant fans about foreign designers clothing our pageant queens is that they have a conflict of interest. Take for example, Barraza clothes both Miss Colombia and Miss Philippines. In essence, Barraza will favour Miss Colombia. In Barraza’s previous outing for the Philippines, pageant connoisseurs aptly termed the creations “bazzura” which can aptly be translated to trash. Even the gown used by Miss Shamcey Supsup in the recently concluded Miss Universe 2011 where she eventually ended up 3^rd runner-up was a re-creation of the unthinking and unimaginative Barraza probably from an unused bale of clothing that she used for a fashion show.

There is no magic formula however on what pageant gown to use. Mirriam Quiambao used a Halston gown with great success. She was simply resplendent and oozed with immense elegance during the gown competition. Venus Raj showed what is supposed to be the dictum in carrying gowns. ”It is not the gown but the lady in it.” The gown was extremely looking bad but Venus carried it with aplomb. However, she would have etched a higher ranking if the gown was well-made and conceptualized.

Another point in case is Jewel Mae Lobaton a replacement for Tisha Silang who competed in the Miss Universe edition in Hawaii, defiantly used a gown by Larry Espinosa against the wishes of Binibining Pilipinas. She used a corset type of gown that did not accentuate her queenly bearing. Jewel got very low scores in the evening gown preliminaries and spelled her doom in the contest. Did she insist on using that gown because she was Best in Long gown  during the Binibining Pilipinas 1998 finals?


One candidate that most pageant fanatics revered and still now showed their frustration is on the evening gown albeit including the national costume is that of Nina Ricci Alagao. The gown was uninspired, ill-fitting and simply lacks class. Many pageant pundits theorize why Miss Philippines lost in that edition of the Miss Universe pageant but everything seems to point out to her poorly looking evening gown.

Another very interesting case is Cara Subijano’s gown during her Miss World stint. Many would agree that Cara is another Miss World in the making. There were implied innuendos that her gown was lost or was stolen so that she would use a borrowed gown that is not competitive enough to show her best. But if reports are correct and true that she was the one who unilaterally decided to use the much dreaded gown that made her downfall in the pageant, then Stella Marquez Araneta had every right to impose what gown should the candidate representing the country should wear. It was said that Cara decided to use that gown because there were a lot of candidates using white and that with the black and blue combination gown, she would attract more attention. Truly she attracted more attention but for a different reason – a disastrous gown.



I can go on enumerating what other pageant pundits and fanatics have pointed out in the past. But still the question is left unanswered. Should Filipino designers clothe our pageant queens? In my earlier treatise, I said there is no magic formula because it may be good for someone (Quiambao) and bad in some (Lobaton). But Filipino designers are leading the pack in the field of designing. We have Oliver Tolentino, Michael Cinco [1], Jojie Loren [2], Rajo Laurel [3]  and Inno Sotto [4] to name a few. Oliver Tolentino [5] designed and made the gowns used by Gwendoline Ruais who came out as First Princess in the recently held Miss World 2011 with astounding results. Ruais came out stunning in those gowns. The gowns were made to complement and make Ruais radiate in them.  And there are still those that have made the fashion world more significant in the name of Pitoy Moreno, Renee Salud, Louie Mamengo and Goulee Gorospe. These stalwarts have made the Filipino fashion world more memorable and exciting as we venture into the new world.


The Filipino designer has been in the forefront of fashion ever since. They have shown apparels which are fashion forward and is highly competitive in all fronts. It is about time that we give them the chance to dress up our pageant queens. What Cory Quirino did in the recently concluded Miss World 2011 is a step in the right direction.