A crash course on Binibining Pilipinas

By Cai Subijano
The Philippine Star
April 16, 2011

MANILA, Philippines - During my two-month stint as a Binibining Pilipinas candidate, I experienced things that I never thought I would, such as dancing repeatedly on national television and riding through EDSA seated on an open-top sports car wearing nothing but a bikini and a ginormous headdress. Looking back, it seemed like a never-ending whirl of hair and makeup, followed by more hair and makeup while teetering from one place to another in five-inch heels. By the end of it, not only did I gain a newfound set of mad makeup skillz (Solenn, you better watch yourself; just kidding — I totally worship you.), but also mad respect for beauty queens and candidates alike. I may not have won, but I didn’t lose anything either because I picked up quite a number of valuable lessons on my rocky road to the crown:

1. Walking like a beauty queen is not easy

In pageantry, there is a time-honored exercise for beauty queen-hopefuls to train their hips to sway more when they walk. It is called (don’t laugh) the duck walk. Why the unfortunate name? I have no idea, but my feet start cramping up at the mere mention of this probable form of medieval torture. Try wearing heels no lower than four inches, fold your arms behind your back and lunge as low as your thighs and glutes will allow you while simultaneously thrusting your hips from side to side. One end of the room to another constitutes a single round. Repeat for a minimum of 10 rounds to a maximum of 20, then die from sheer exhaustion.

2. Plastic surgery is surprisingly common among candidates

I’ll be the very first person to admit that getting my chest, uh, enhanced actually crossed my mind. However, after a visit to the surgeon’s office and getting the opportunity to play around with actual silicon implants (i.e. stuffing them into my bra), I decided to leave without buying anything because I’m terrified of scalpels.

It’s not that I have anything against it. Some of the candidates who underwent a couple of nips and tucks, the most common being rhinoplasties and breast augmentation, were totally open about it and definitely more confident about themselves after. While there were rumors brewing that some candidates went as far as liposuction or rib removal (I kid you not) just to achieve Venus Raj’s 22-inch waistline, they’re all probably just that: rumors.

3. Beauty pageant candidates are pretty much their own hair and makeup artists

Not all, but most of them, at least. Although Binibining Pilipinas had David’s Salon as its official sponsor for the hair and makeup of the candidates, nearly every candidate already knew how to expertly wield her own set of makeup and hair tools ranging from professional brands like Kryolan and Babyliss to department store steals, like James Cooper and Finesse. After all, in international pageants, all candidates are expected to know how to fix themselves, so it didn’t hurt to start now. In the words of Helena Rubinstein, “There are no ugly women, only lazy ones.”

4. Candidates pack a serious amount of beauty booty

Surgery and makeup aren’t the only tools candidates resort to for image enhancement. From pricy investments like veneers and hair extensions to relatively affordable enhancements like false eyelashes, contact lens, Sally Hansen spray-on tans, Hollywood Tape or double-stick tape, which served the same purpose and stick-on silicone breasts (I proudly stuffed six of these into my swimsuit — three per boob — to make up for my not-so proudly endowed chest). Honorable mentions include Mighty Bond or electric tape for candidates who had problems with ears that stuck-out and Fanny Serrano bronzer for drawing on abs and emphasizing cleavage (yep, still on the boob issue). Of course not all candidates used all of these, but they were pretty common. With the sheer amount of products we had to use every day, most of us had to wheel around suitcases to and from Araneta Center every single day.

5. The beauty queen diet
I’m quite happy to say that in the two months that I spent with my co-candidates, not one of them seemed to exhibit any kind of eating disorder. Quite the contrary because whenever food was brought into our holding area, nearly all of it was inhaled within a matter of minutes. Not the most queenly behaviour, I’ll admit, especially not when the food in question was comprised of pizza, ice cream, tacos and burritos. Yup, since the pageant sponsors were Pizza Hut, Dairy Queen and Taco Bell, they were regular items on our menu. So how to did we not turn into life-size bikini-clad blimps after ingesting all this delicious fare for two months? I’d like to think it was superhuman-control, but truth be told, the likely culprits were probably stress and the next item on my list. Well, we did sprinkle inordinate amounts of McCormick Cinammon powder (for appetite suppression) and Cayenne Pepper (to speed up metabolism) — not at the same time, mind you — on nearly everything we ingested. However, I’d like to think it was superhuman self-control, but truth be told, the likely culprits were probably stress and the next item on my list...

6. We candidates dance a lot more than I care to admit

 I’m just wondering how Venus maintained her 22-inch waistline despite being faced with all that pizza (there were more, but had to be cropped out of the shot, obvs). I mean, she didn’t even touch her salad! Photo from pizzahut.com.ph Dancing. Everywhere. All the Time. Mostly in our bikinis. All this dancing was a little more painful on my part because I don’t exactly have good body coordination and with all that duck walking, I just couldn’t have danced all night. There was dancing during the opening of our talent competition in Ali Mall. Dancing at our official press presentation in Sofitel. Dancing at a cocktail event in ABS-CBN attended by guests of honor, Gabby Lopez and Charo Santos-Concio. Dancing during a TV guesting in noontime show Happy Yippe Yehey. And so on and so forth until I had no more shame left during the opening number for the coronation night where I shook my money-maker for all it was worth, much to the distress of the Filipino TV viewing public.

7. Candidates spend a lot of time talking (about) sh*t

In a room full of 40 females, there’s bound to be some nasty talk about each other, but what amused me most was our collective fixation with bowel movement. Since we regularly had pretty early call times, this messed with our regular um, programming, which was pretty frustrating. I can’t tell you how many times we complained about not being able to go or how often nearly all cubicles were occupied by candidates simultaneously trying to heed the call of nature. In fact, it wasn’t at all uncommon for us to be doing both activities at the same time. Hey, clean is beautiful!

8. Get ready for major, major intriga

Candidates were warned way ahead of time about how nasty beauty pageant-related forums could get and were advised to keep our noses out of them if we didn’t want to be negatively affected by the comments. As for rumors, gossip and intrigue circulating on these websites, these things can get pretty intense. It’s shocking how easily and freely people jump to conclusions about certain things without even bothering to check their facts first or even giving other people the benefit of the doubt, but then again, all this just comes with the territory. With that said, I’d like to give serious props to every artista who’s ever participated in a staring contest with Boy Abunda while clearing up an issue during their “The Buzz moment.”

9. Beware the DOMs!
During one of our shoots by the poolside at Sofitel, a man at the prime of his life, to put it mildly, was lurking about our set with a ginormous D-SLR hanging in front of his naked, hairy chest framed by his shamelessly unbuttoned polo. That alone, coupled with his cheesy billowy white pants, Charlie Sheen-esque shades and medyas and Birkenstock clad feet, should’ve sent warning signals to me. But no, I thought he was a member of the media. And so I politely chatted with him and only understood just what the exchange was about when he left and returned with a glass of water and plate full of fruits for me. For the remainder of the shoot, the director and the executive producer joked about the fruits having some sort of gayuma that would make me fall in love with my new “friend.” Gross, guys. Just. Gross.

10. Apparently by the end of it, the crown is nothing but a headache
Throughout the entire ordeal, several beauty queens like Venus Raj were on-hand to provide much-needed advice and guidance to the aspiring Binibinis. My favourite encounter with Raj was during the shoot for our primer in Republiq. Backstage, she enlisted the help of a hair stylist from David’s Salon to help her pin her crown on. In a pique of curiosity, I asked her if it was heavy, to which she replied in jest, “Oo! Ang sakit sa ulo!” In more ways than one, but hey, you know what they say: beauty is pain.

*** special thanks to: The Philipinne Star, Arthur Kho of pilipinasbeauties.com,pizzahut.com.ph and Cara Subijano for the photos.

What makes the Miss World local franchise go round?

STAR BYTES By Butch Francisco
The Philippine Star, March 24, 2011

Cory Quirino — officially — was never a titled beauty. However, I’m willing to be corrected by Funfare’s beauty experts if she, indeed, became Miss Something in the past.

As the granddaughter of President Elpidio Quirino, I can imagine she was not allowed by family to get into a swimsuit and try out in some national beauty pageant. In the case of Margie Moran, a direct descendant of President Manuel Roxas, she joined Binibining Pilipinas without asking permission from her parents and submitted her application form with the signature of a conniving grandmother. Mom and Dad, obviously, were, too, thrilled to scold her after winning the top plum and eventually became Miss Universe.

But going back to Cory, she had long been admired for both looks and intelligence. To this day, she is associated with beauty, youth and wellness.

And now, she is a beauty contest impresario. Yesterday, in fact, the press was witness to her initial reign as pageant organizer at the launch of the first ever Miss World Philippines beauty contest, a search that will continue trying to find the Filipina to finally conquer the elusive Miss World title.

Stella Marquez-Araneta’s Binibini already lost the local franchise to Miss World and that had been handed by the London-based organization to the Cory Quirino Global Quest (CQGQ). Even the right to select the local bet to Miss Universe can be taken away from the Araneta group after all these decades and Madame Stella is said to be prepared for such eventuality. (That should be painful since she had done a good job at it.)

The license to choose the RP delegate to Miss World had always changed hands from the beginning. I learned about this, ironically enough, when the rival Miss Universe contest was held in Manila in 1994. ABS-CBN made me anchor a series of pre-Miss Universe specials prior to the coronation day.

As part of my preparation as host, I was made to talk to local beauty contest experts who had a treasure trove of major pageant information. There was one who lived in a mansion and had a whole room — a big one — that contained shelf after shelf of clippings about beauty contests, both local and foreign.

I think it was there when I found out that in the ‘60s, some group would simply put up a party and the prettiest girl in the room would be sent to Miss World. If I am not mistaken, that was how Maita Gomez (a former socialite who later gave up the comfy life to join the underground movement) was selected. It would seem like she never had plans of even joining the contest and none of girls in that event probably knew they were being pitted against each other.

In time, it was the Beauty World Ltd. that got the franchise to send Miss Philippines to Miss World. This was an organization made up mostly of the so-called society playboys, who were organizing the search for the fun of it. In 1968, they put up a luncheon show with beauty aspirants and the winner was Pinky Amabuyok, who finished fifth in Miss World.

A couple of years later, the local selection process became more formal with the entry of Ferdie Villar, who put up Miss Republic of the Philippines, along with the Mr. and Miss Philippine Movies (today’s Box-Office King and Queen) that crowned the top actor and actress of the year. Vangie Pascual was a title-holder of Miss Republic of the Philippines (later shortened to Miss RP) and later almost won Miss World in 1973 by placing second.

In 1977, it was the group of hotelier Biboy Enriquez that absorbed the responsibility to pick the country’s bet to Miss World. They had both Miss Asia Quest and the Mutya ng Pilipinas, the winner of which was made to compete with other lovely girls from the continent, including blondes from Australia and New Zealand.
And so aside from Mutya ng Pilipinas-Asia, there was a Mutya ng Pilipinas-World and also a Mutya ng Pilipinas-Tourism (Emma Yuhico, who later became a friend, was one of the holders of this title).

The local franchise to Miss World changed hands again in the ‘90s. This time, it went to Binibining Pilipinas. I don’t know how true this is, but according to a beauty pageant historian I talked to for that series of pre-Miss Universe specials I did for Channel 2, Mrs. Araneta had always wanted to get awarded the right to choose the Philippine entry to Miss World.

In 1973, in fact, she put up three major titles at stake: Bb. Pilipinas-Universe, Bb. Pilipinas-International and Miss Young Philippines — plus two minor ones, Miss Maja Philippines and Miss World Peace. Nanette Prodigalidad won Maja and placed second in Madrid (the contest had since been discontinued). The Miss World Peace titlist, Joan Gatlin Salas, went nowhere (there was supposed to be a contest in India that never pushed through), but ended up being Mrs. Fred Elizalde (before Lisa Macuja).

If we are to believe the story of that beauty contest expert, the Miss World Peace (given only once) was put up in the hope of that the Binibini group would eventually snag the Philippine franchise to Miss World. They got it eventually and made it possible for Ruffa Gutierrez to get crowned Miss World Second Princess and Asia’s Queen of Beauty in 1993.

Cory Quirino has a huge task ahead of her. Finding the girl who may become the first Pinay to win Miss World would require her organization to search every nook and cranny of the country. She is being assisted by Bambi Verzo’s Concertus group, which had successfully put up some of the biggest productions ever staged in the country in the last decade (they are very organized people — I can attest to that). The Miss World Philippines coronation night will be covered by GMA 7 on July 30.

But why did Mrs. Araneta lose the Miss World Philippine franchise? Last January, somebody told me a little story about it, except that I am not a hundred percent sure about its veracity. Let’s just say that Miss World head Julia Morley was no longer happy with the group of Binibini.

Of course, happiness — like beauty — is relative. And the world is a circle.

As they say, there is nothing permanent in this world, especially not the local franchise to Miss World.