BEAUTY-CONTEST fanatics like me thought we had nothing to cheer for at the moment, what with the major pageants scheduled at the end of the year yet. But we were thrown into a frenzy last week when the Binibining Pilipinas organization announced, not just one but two pageants, that our beloved Binibinis will be sent to compete in.
Parul Shah, crowned Bb. Pilipinas Tourism in 2014 and who was not able to compete internationally during her reign, will be sent to represent the country in the Miss Grand International (MGI) in Bangkok, Thailand, on October 26. She is set to leave on October 4. On the other hand, the reigning Bb. Pilipinas Tourism, Ann Lorraine Colis, will leave for Toronto, Canada, on September 20 to vie for the Miss Globe title on October 11.
Ideally, both would have been sent to the Miss Tourism Queen International pageant, but this tilt hasn’t been staging a contest in recent years. Our own Justine Gabionza reigned in 2006.
Like Venus Raj, Parul is half-Indian. She is a nursing graduate from the University of the Cordilleras. She previously competed in Bb. Pilipinas in 2013 and emerged one of the top 15 finalists. The Dubai-born, dusky beauty is fluent in English, Filipino, Hindi and Arabic.
MGI is now on its third year and is fast gaining traction as a pageant powerhouse, attracting more than 80 contestants from around the world. It is a “search for the potential woman to encourage and run the campaign ‘Stop War and Violence’ to help people to avoid conflict and violence that may lead to war in any form.”
Parul hopes to better the third-runner-up finish of Annalie Forbes in 2013 at MGI. The reigning queen is Daryanne Lees of Cuba.
Meanwhile, Ann Lorraine will be the first beauty queen to compete internationally. However, there’s too much confusion between Miss Globe (www.themissglobe.com), the pageant, which she will be sent to, and Miss Globe International (www.missglobeinternational.com). The latter lists the Philippine representative as one Princes Ramos (yes, Princes). But wasn’t Toni Alyessa Hipolito, another Bb. alumna, bound for this competition supposedly in Brussels, Belgium? (Our own Maricar Balagtas won in 2001.)
Ann Lorraine, 22, was one of my favorites at the recent Binibini pageant for her regal bearing, Nina Ricci Alagao confidence and Lala Flores winning smile. She is a management accounting graduate of the University of Santo Tomas. She hails from Mexico, Pampanga.
I admit I’m not very familiar with Miss Globe, and the Internet offers little information. On its site, Miss Globe, founded in Albania and run by Petri Bozo of Deliart Association, was built on the mission of introducing to the world a different side to the little European nation—not its problems and poverty, but its true nature as a beautiful, ancient, attractive and welcoming country. This much it has in common with Miss Earth and the Philippines, Miss Grand and Thailand, and Miss International and Japan.
I’m afraid Ann Lorraine will have an uphill climb to winning the Miss Globe crown. Previous winners are mostly of the blond, blue-eyed, Latina variety, such as Bianca Maria Paduraru of Romania (2013), Kleoniki Deligorgji of Albania (2012), Stephanie Alice of Germany (2011), Laura Urbonite of Lithuania (2010), Samah Gahfaz of Algeria (2009), Almeda Abazi of Algeria (2008), Helen da Silva of Brazil (2007), Viviana Puna of Venezuela (2006), Lucia Liptakova of Slovenia (2005) and Kristina Slavinskaya of Russia (2004).
The reigning Miss Globe is Jacqueline Wojciechowski of Canada. In carriage and elegance, Ann Lorraine closely resembles the Slovenian Liptakova. Will she be the first Asian to be Miss Globe? Here’s hoping for the best!
Image credits: Bruce Casanova for OPMB Worldwide