Miss International 2008 Update

 

Kyoto: (L-R) Florence Loi of Macau, Tham Zi Wei of Malaysia, Ochgerel Khulangoo of Mongolia, Sai Ma of Hong Kong, Kim Min-Jung of South Korea, Liu Changwen of China, Yu Ting Yen of Taiwan and Ee Tok Wee of Singapore, representatives for the Miss International Beauty Pageant 2008, pose as they visit a Japanese garden at the Nijojo castle. The beauty pageant will be held in Macau on November 8.

Patricia Fernandez praying to be RP's 5th Ms. International

Binibining Pilipinas International Patricia Fernandez possesses what a Filipina needs to have to stand out in a crowd of beautiful women from around the world: talent and brains.

Fernandez is off to Macau, China on Saturday to participate in the 48th Miss International Beauty Pageant, which will be held on November 8 at the Venetian Macao Resort-Hotel.

The young Filipina, a graduate of BA Speech Communication from the University of the Philippines, trained for months at the prestigious Dale Carnegie Training, and had to learn three languages, including Mandarin and Nihonggo.

Since winning the Bb. Pilipinas International crown, Fernandez has become more graceful after undergoing training in jazz, latin and belly dancing.

Nervous

Despite her radiant beauty and talent, Fernandez told media people during her send off party at the Mandarin Suites at the Gateway Mall in Cubao, that she is very nervous and needs the Filipinos' support to grab the Miss International crown.

"Please, please pray for me. I badly need your prayers. I hope I will be your fifth Miss International," she said. "I'm nervous, but I hope I will be able to make our country proud."

Fernandez is hoping to follow the steps of Lara Quigaman, who won the 2005 Miss International Beauty Pageant held in Japan.

Quigaman is the fourth Filipina to grab the prestigious crown. The other Filipina beauties that have been crowned Miss International were Melanie Marquez, Aurora Pijuan and Gemma Cruz.

At the send off, Fernandez gave the media people a taste of her talent playing the piano. She said she has been playing the piano since she was six years old.

She sang a Kundiman (a genre of traditional Filipino love songs), while playing the piano. The Filipina beauty boasts a talent in singing as she trained for two years with the UP Singing Ambassadors.

Patchot is taken

In her brief encounter with the press people at the send off, Fernandez, fondly called "Patchot" by her family and close friends, threw out the bad news: She's taken.

She said her boyfriend, whom she said she had been dating since college, will also fly to Macau to witness the beauty pageant.

Also coming with Fernandez are her mother, her mother's friends and her sister.

Asked if she's willing to have a career in the entertainment business, Fernandez said she is open to it. However, she said she is more focused on the upcoming beauty pageant, and that making movies rarely comes to her mind.

Bringing to Macau the Filipino's warmth

Aside from a winter jacket, which she had been advised to bring because of the cold climate in Macau, Fernandez said she will show the world the Filipino's warmth.

"What I am most proud of about the Philippines is the fact that our people are as warm as our climate," the Filipina beauty said.

Miss International 2008

Miss International 2008 will be held in Macau, a Special Administrative Region of China, on November 8th according to the official website of the pageant. The venue is the Venetian Macau Resort Hotel. The official press conference was held on March 12th at Venetian Macau to announce the venue and date of the pageant.

Miss International 2007, Priscila Perales Elizondo of Mexico, Miss Photogenic 2007, Hisako Shirata of Japan, and Miss Friendship, Kwan Hing Wong attended the press conference as guests and gave speech to media and journalists. 

The last Miss Macau winner, Agnes Lo, also attended the event to announce the revival of Miss Macau that was last held in 1997. As of this writing, the winner should have been selected since Miss Macau 2008 has been scheduled last September 6th.

Perales Elizondo won the crown in Tokyo last year and her courts include Despoina Vlepaki of Greece and Yuliya Sindzeyeva of Belarus as first and second runners up respectively. Elizondo also represented Mexico in the 2007 Miss Universe that was held in her country and she made it to finals.

Miss International started in 1960 in Long Beach, California, USA. The first winner is Stella Marquez of Colombia who is now based in the Philippines. Stella married a Filipino businessman and she now heads the Binibining Pilipinas or Miss Philippines in English.

Trivia on Beauty Pageants

I am listing ten interesting trivia about the major beauty pageants which incluude Miss Universe, Miss World and Miss International. Take your time to read this and analyze.

Miss Universe 1953 and Miss World 1953 are both from France.

1. Four countries have won the Miss Universe and Miss World titles in the same year - France in 1953 (Christiane Martel & Denise Perrier), Australia in 1972 (Kerry Anne Wells & Belinda Green), Venezuela in 1981 (Irene Saez & Pilin Leon), and India in 1994 (Sushmita Sen & Aishwarya Rai) and in 2000 (Lara Dutta and Priyanka Chopra)

2. No country has ever had consecutive winners in the Miss Universe Pageant. India and Venezuela came so close to doing so in 1995 and 1997 respectively. However, Sweden and the United Kingdom have had consecutive winners in the Miss World Pageant (1951 & 1952 for Sweden, 1964 & 1965 for the United Kingdom).

3. Italy, famous for its love of fashion & beauty, as well as for its "beautiful" actresses Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida, has never won any major international beauty title.


4. In the early 90's, Miss World attempted to have a Miss North Korea. But nothing came of it.

1979 Miss International Mimilanie Marquez posed for the Super Model of the World contest.

5. Miss International 1979, Mimilanie Marquez of the Philippines, was second runner-up in the Super Model of the World Contest. According to some reports, she was asked to represent the USA instead of the Philippines. The Ford modelling agency insisted that she will have a better chance of winning if she represented the USA but she proudly declined and represented her native Philippines instead, and ended up as a runner-up.

6. In 1973, in a unique twist between United States and the Philippines, United States was first runner-up to Philippines in the Miss Universe Pageant. Philippines was first runner-up to the United States in the Miss World Pageant that very same year.

7. Misses Macau 1989, 1993, 1995 & 1996 are sisters. They are of Pedruco's family, a famous family in Macau. They all represented Macau in Miss World Contest in those years, but none of them made it to the semi-finals.

The Top 3 of 1998 Miss Universe in Hawaii, USA reacts. Joyce Giraud represented Puerto Rico.

8. Miss Universe Puerto Rico 1998, Joyce Giraud was crowned by Ana Rosa Brito, Miss Universe Puerto Rico 1997 twice. First, in Miss World Puerto Rico 1994, and second in Miss Universe Puerto Rico 1998.

9. In Miss Universe 1954, there were 6 Latin delegates in the semi-final competition. The highest amount of Latin delegates who entered the semi-finals.

10. Korea's representative to Miss Universe 1991, Suh Jung Min doesn't enjoy being a former Miss Korea. They found out in 1993 that she bribed the judges to win the title.