My Bb. Pilipinas Experience by Regina Han (Bb. Pilipinas 2009 1st Runner Up)

My mother, Chiqui Brosas, was a former beauty queen (Bb. Pilipinas-Universe). A very gregarious and outgoing person, she placed fourth in the 1975 Miss Universe pageant in El Salvador. I grew up quite the opposite.

I was timid and shy. Following in my mother’s footsteps was never in my plans. I knew my strengths so I chose to concentrate on my studies. I graduated as a dean’s lister in 2004 from Ateneo de Manila University with a degree in Computer Science. In five years, I went from being a programmer, to a project manager for a large telecommunications company, to an I.T. consultant for an international firm.

Needless to say, being an I.T. programmer and a beauty queen were on completely opposite poles. I must admit I had never watched a beauty pageant, even my mother’s. I had almost no modeling experience. My world was different from the glitz and glamour of Bb. Pilipinas, but I did not let that stop me. I wanted to try and I wasn’t going to let my inexperience discourage me.

The pageant was not without challenge. I was constantly asked whether I was pressured by my mom’s legacy. Strong competition surrounded me and there were expectations to do well in the question and answer portion due to my “bookish” background. Without focus, it could have been very easy to lose confidence and be overcome with anxiety. But I did not allow myself to become distracted. This for me was a competition against myself.

I worked hard to learn the ins and outs of being a beauty queen. Many sleepless nights were spent “YouTube-ing” past pageants. I read up and wrote down my thoughts on almost every world issue. I learned to put on make-up by watching the artists paint my face.

I experimented with different hairstyles to see what best suited me. Despite the initial awkwardness, I found the courage to go out in my swimsuit and strut my stuff in front of millions of viewers. I swallowed my fear of tripping on my very long gown and learned how to walk down the stage with the confidence of a pro. I smiled like a winner every day despite the lack of sleep, an aching back and painful throbbing feet. To me, success was measured by my ability to bring out the best in myself, to lose all inhibitions, fears, and insecurities. I stood there and gave it everything I had. I knew I did my best, and with that alone, I felt that I had won.

The night before the pageant, every contestant was dreading the Q&A portion. Standing in the spotlight at Araneta Coliseum and on national television, dressed in a two-piece swimsuit, expected to think quickly and speak sensibly was no easy task. As with every other night, I read one chapter of my Bible before going to bed.

It so happened that that night I was on Exodus, Chapter 4, Verse 12 (Exo.4:12) reads, “I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” I was overwhelmed. Right then and there, I knew that He was with me. Come pageant night, I lifted my eyes in prayer and dedicated the competition to Him. True enough, He carried me through. My prayer always was that His will be done in my life. I knew that any outcome was part of His perfect plan for me. Now I am excited to see where this will lead me.

I’ve learned from this experience that anything is possible with determination, hard work and prayer. I want my story to be an inspiration for Filipinos to believe the same. We are a very gifted and talented people. We can succeed as a nation if only we learn to believe in our own potential and unite to work towards a common goal.

Let us stop looking to others for salvation, but instead act within our capacity to contribute to the betterment of our country. So stand up and do something. Do not be afraid to try. Start that business you’ve been dreaming of. Stop corruption.

Restore your family. Encourage your children. Instill in them good morals and values. Recycle. Excel in every good thing that you do. There are many ways to contribute. Now is the time to act. Our country’s future is in our hands, if we would only try.

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Gersbach, Manalo, Umali top Bb. Pilipinas Pageant

The Binibing Pilipinas Pageant 2009 crowned its top three beauty queens early Sunday, starting with 22-year-old Pamela Bianca Manalo as Bb. Pilipinas-Universe, followed by 23-year-old Melody Gersbach as Bb. Pilipinas-International and 22-year-old Marie-Ann Umali as Bb. Pilipinas-World.

Named before them were 26-year-old Regina Hahn as second runner-up and 20-year-old Richell Agalot as first runner-up.

The coronation was held at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, with the show starting late on Saturday. It was aired live over GMA channels nationwide with Paolo Bediones and Iza Calzado as hosts.

The winners were crowned by their respective predecessors – Patricia Fernandez (Bb. Pilipinas-International), Jennifer Barrientos (Bb. Pilipina- Universe), and Danielle Castaño (Bb. Pilipinas 2008).

Castaño replaced Janina San Miguel who resigned late last year after the death of her grandfather.

Winners' backgrounds

Manalo won several other awards – the Best in Swimsuit award, after which she also got a sponsor's honor, the Manila Bulletin Readers' Choice Award. Manalo, a 22-year-old native of Manila, is an Advertising graduate of the Assumption College who now works as a flight attendant.

Gersbach – who did not win any other award – was born in Germany, but her mother hails from the Bicol Region, where Gersbach manages the family restaurant in Albay. She is after all a graduate of the University of Asia and the Pacific with a degree in Management.

Earlier in the night, Umali also won the Best in Long Gown and Miss Photogenic plum. Umali, a native of Batangas City, took up Tourism at the College of Saint Benilde. She plans to be a flight attendant and dreams of putting up her own restaurant.

Runners-up

Shortly before Umali's award, Angalot was named as Miss Talent, for a dance that she performed a week earlier on Talent Night on Saturday. She was also won the awards for Miss Natasha Beauty and Araneta Center Shoppers' Choice – both coming from pageant sponsors.

Angalot, a native of Tagbilaran City, graduated with a Tourism degree from the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City. Under the stage name Rich Asuncion, she is one of the talents of GMA Network.

Hahn, a native of Manila and Computer Science graduate from the Ateneo de Manila University, works as an information consultant for an international company.

Candidate No. 4 Gizelle Jasmin Rivamonte was named as Miss Friendship, which carried the distinction of having been voted by the other candidates themselves. Rivamonte, a 23-year-old native of Quezon City, is a registered nurse working at the Oncology Unit of the Veterans Memorial Medical Center. She graduated from the Far Easten University.

There were 24 semifinalists, but Candidate No. 13, Sandra Inez Seifert, was disqualified a week before for having done a sexy pictorial that was published in a men's magazine.(gmanews.tv)

Binibining Pilipinas 2009: Just another batch of recycled beauties?

 IF YOU were at the Binibining Pilipinas 2009 press presentation of candidates held at the Sunset Pavilion and poolside of the Sofitel Philippine Plaza Hotel Manila last Feb. 24, you would probably ask yourself this question:

“Is our country really running out of beautiful women?”

Well, the “mother of all local pageants” established by Stella Marquez de Araneta in 1964 has a handful of experienced “conteseras” (gay lingo for experienced beauty contestants) and repeaters in this year’s lineup, for the nth time!

Then there’s also the addition of the younger sister and niece of erstwhile beauty queens as well as the daughter of a former titleholder whose age is already past the pageant’s usual maximum age requirement which is 25.

How come that 26-year-old video jock Joanne “Joey Mead” Pilar Angeles got rejected for being “too old to be a beauty queen” in 2001?

Although the presence of these special girls with familiar faces brought joy to their die-hard supporters and some friends in the media, this scenario certainly sends a wrong signal to hundreds of inexperienced yet very promising ladies out there who also dream of duplicating the feats of Gloria Diaz (Miss Universe 1969), Aurora Pijuan (Miss International 1970), Margie Moran (Miss Universe 1973), Melanie Marquez (Miss International 1979), and Precious Lara Quigaman (Miss International 2005) someday.

They might think that Binibining Pilipinas is only restricted, if not exclusive, to desperate dreamers and next of kin of former beauty queens—so they would just take a shot into newer and lesser prestigious national pageants. But Binibining Pilipinas Charities Inc. did not give explanations about these things last Tuesday.

Jennifer Barrientos failed to win the Miss Universe crown in Vietnam last year. Miss World contender Danielle Muriel Castaño, despite being a heavy favorite in South Africa, still ended up as a thank-you girl. Only Patricia Fernandez figured prominently in Macau, placing sixth overall in the Miss International beauty congress. Prior to joining the Binibini, Fernandez was Mutya ng Quezon City winner and Mutya ng Pilipinas 2006 first runner-up.

Quigaman, now tagged as one of the three prodigal daughters of Mrs. Araneta—the other two being Karen Loren Agustin and Denille Lou Valmonte who were all reportedly “banned for life” for putting up their own national competition to initiate changes—joined Binibini two times after all.

And so many beauty contest analysts just surmised that la señora de Araneta, erstwhile fashion czar Pitoy Moreno and the rest of the organizers think that selecting ladies with “vast experiences” is indeed a wise decision: They don’t need to spend a lot of time and huge amounts to polish their crowned queens—“slight repairs” will already do.

Here are some of the ladies who are predicted to make their co-candidates compete harder come coronation night.

Do they really deserve to be the country’s bet to the Miss Universe, Miss World and Miss International pageants? Let’s see…

Candidate no. 2 Carasheila May Kuijipers (Parañaque), 21, is the most hyped delegate over the Internet. Carasheila, who has British roots, is a print and runway model abroad.

Candidate no. 3 Richell Angalot (Bohol) is known as Rich Asuncion, a contract artist of GMA-7. The Boholana’s claim to fame was winning First Princess in the fourth season of GMA-7’s reality show Starstruck, in 2007. A dead-ringer for Pilar Pilapil, Richell is taking up tourism at the University of the Philippines in Diliman.

Candidate no. 6 Maria Paula Bianca Paz came all the way from Los Angeles, California, to try her luck in this pageant. The 20-year-old fashion design and merchandising graduate is the current “apple of the eye” of actor Polo Ravales.

Candidate no. 9 April Love Jordan (Ilocos Sur) is a 20-year-old tourism, hotel and travel industry management senior at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila. The former flight attendant and part-time runway model placed second runner-up in Mutya ng Pilipinas 2006 and represented the country in the 2006 Miss Tourism Queen of the Year International contest in Malaysia where she was chosen as Miss Secret Charm.

Candidate no. 10 Priscilla Navidad (Davao City) is the hearing-impaired housemate who only communicates via lip-reading in the Pinoy Big Brother Teen Edition reality show of ABS-CBN last year. The 18-year-old accounting major at AMA Computer University wants to prove that her disability is not a hindrance in pursuing her goals.

Candidate no. 11 Regina Hahn (Pasig City), 26, graduated with a degree in computer science at the Ateneo de Manila University and works as a professional services consultant. She hopes to equal the feat of her mom, Rosemarie “Chiqui” Brosas-Hahn, who represented the country in the 1975 Miss Universe pageant and placed fourth runner-up.

Candidate no. 15 Pamela Bianca Manalo (Parañaque) is an advertising alumna at the Assumption College. The 22-year-old flight stewardess-cum-runway model is the younger sister of Miss World 2002 finalist Katherine Anne Manalo and the niece of Miss International 1968 semifinalist Nenita “Nini” Ramos-Licaros.

Candidate no. 17 Marie-Ann Umali (Batangas) joined this search to redeem herself and do better this time. A crowd favorite in 2007, the 22-year-old tourism graduate at College of Saint Benilde only landed in the semis after stuttering during the final interview segment, by saying, “In my own words, love cannot be defined, it should be ‘filt’ [She meant felt].” She resembles sexy actress Francine Prieto.

Candidate no. 20 Melody Gersbach (Bicol), 23, earned her degree in business management at the University of Asia and the Pacific. She manages their family’s restaurant business in Daraga, Albay. She won the Miss Bicolandia crown last year.

Candidate no. 24 Abigail Lesley Cruz (Tarlac City) is a runway and commercial model. She competed two years ago, won Best in Swimsuit, but only emerged as second runner-up. Her feats include being Mutya ng Pilipinas 2005 third runner-up, Miss Fort Ilocandia 2005 winner and finalist in the first season of ABS-CBN’s Close Up to Fame: The Search for the Next Close Up Couple. Paolo Bediones’ girlfriend wants no less than a major beauty title in the world!

Completing this year’s roster of candidates are Vanessa Johnson (Pampanga), Miss Philippines-Earth 2008 finalist Gizelle Jasmin Rivamonte (Quezon City), Diana Arevalo (Oriental Mindoro), Binibining Pilipinas 2005 and Mutya ng Pilipinas 2007 thank-you-girl Jane de la Cruz (Bulacan), Cheryl Oliveros (Pangasinan), Binibining Pilipinas 2008 semifinalist Jaysel Arrozal (Valenzuela City), Elite Model Look 1998 delegate Sandra Inez Seifert (Bacolod City), Binibining Pilipinas 2007 semifinalist Keann Mallari (Pampanga), Mary Tiffany Jones (Quezon City), Marie Loraine de Guzman (Makati City), Stephanie Señires (Cebu City), Hazel Sutch (Southern Leyte), Priscilla Mae Honorio (Cebu City), and Barbara Salvador (Marikina City).

Binibining Pilipinas 2009 coronation night will be held tomorrow at the Big Dome. The three-hour extravaganza, to be hosted by Paolo Bediones and Iza Calzado, will be telecast on GMA-7 at 9:30 p.m.

Text By Giovanni Paolo J. Yazon of manilastandardtoday.com