MAKATI CITY, Philippines—Reigning Mrs. Philippines Asia Pacific All Nations Limpayen Sibug-Las celebrated her birthday at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). But she did not go on a birthday trip outside the metropolis.
The beauty queen, a Manobo princess herself, carried out an outreach mission on June 5 for the Queen of Hearts Foundation, the entity behind the national pageant for married women and mothers where she got her crown.
Sibug-Las, accompanied by Mrs. Philippines Asia Pacific Intercontinental Glynes Evangelista Olbes, went to the NAIA Terminal 2 to hand over some aid to the overseas Filipino workers and other passengers who were stranded because of some difficulty in securing flights back home.
In an online interview, Queen of Hearts Foundation Chair Mitzie Go-Gil told the Inquirer that she sought to help the stranded passengers because one of her group’s advocacies “is to promote the welfare of people in need or the underprivileged in particular.”
More than 200 passengers received aid from the foundation.
To Sibug-Las, Go-Gil said, “what you are doing now is really admirable and deserves appreciation.”
Go-Gil added: “Rest assured that the Queen of Hearts Foundation will do its best to provided assistance, within our means, for the stranded people to be reunited with their families.”
The foundation had earlier joined the “Oplan Bayanihan” project of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples to help the IP communities “in need of assistance and were severely affected by the lockdown imposed by the government,” she shared.
It had also spearheaded a donation drive for the benefit of the frontliners at the Philippine National Police General Hospital, and other medical institutions.
The foundation is also currently conducting the Mrs. Queen of Hearts Foundation pageant, where delegates from around the country are engaging in a series of online competitions.
Initially scheduled in April, the pageant was moved to the third quarter of the year because of the COVD-19 pandemic. It will mostly have online components to adhere to the quarantine guidelines the government implemented to address the health crisis.
Sibug-Las and Olbes will relinquish their titles at the culmination of the competition.
The national pageant will select the Philippines’ representatives to the Mrs. Asia Pacific and Mrs. Worldwide pageants later this year, and the Mrs. Global Universe contest next year.
Sibug-Las was proclaimed Best in Talent, Mrs. Glamour, and Mrs. Lumiere in the 2019 Mrs. Asia Pacific Pageant. Olbes, meanwhile, cracked the Top 10 and got the Mrs. MIlennium award in the same global tilt.
Go-Gil, who leads the national pageant organization, is herself an international beauty queen. She was crowned Mrs. Asia Pacific Tourism in 2018.