Each year, the Binibining Pilipinas pageant aims to search for the finest women to represent the country in the best international pageants.
Maria Susana Flores walked up to the microphone in a sequined black dress, showing the judges of the Sinaloa Woman beauty contest the smile and the strut she had perfected in pageants since preschool.
I slept through the Miss Universe pageant. I had a good excuse—I was writing until sunrise and I was nursing a fever. But it wasn’t good enough for Jason, my pageant-obsessed best friend who, when I confessed, texted, “Whhhhhhhy???????!?!?!?”
A 20-year-old self-described “cellist-nerd” brought the Miss Universe crown back to the United States for the first time in more than a decade, and a beauty from the Philippines won first runner-up honors in a pageant where the world’s most beautiful women paraded in bikinis and ball gowns.
Women from around the world are preparing to don evening gowns, show their interview skills and strut in swimsuits on Wednesday (Thursday morning in Manila) in hopes of becoming the next Miss Universe.
Miss Universe 2011 third runner-up Shamcey Supsup got an invitation to become a host in the coming Miss Universe pageant.
German-Filipino model Stephany Stefanowitz bagged the Miss Earth-Air title during the 12th Miss Earth coronation night at Versailles Palace in Alabang, Muntinlupa City, on Saturday, sustaining the Philippines’ winning streak in the global competition.
Odette Alcantara used to call me, with loving sarcasm, “Miss Universe” and I would retaliate by calling her “Miss World.” Little would I guess that I’d ever quarrel with such loving terms. And only because “universal” has come to mean “global.” And “globalization,” in the wrong sense of the word, as it is touted today, is a bad word. It is the standardization or popularization of everything that benefits the Western world. (Miss World’s world).
Miss China won the coveted title of Miss World on Saturday, triumphing on home soil during a glitzy final held in a mining city on the edge of the Gobi desert.
Call it a charm offensive. It might not resolve the conflicting claims over Scarborough Shoal between China and the Philippines, but the friendly overtures that the newly crowned Miss World Philippines plans to offer her Chinese hosts wouldn’t hurt either.
Lovelier the second time around is probably the best way to describe German-Filipino model Stephany Stefanowitz who bagged the Miss Philippines-Earth title on her second attempt, beating 46 other contenders in the fast-paced pageant held Sunday night.
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