Precious And Few

Like so many Filipinos, I had been secretly harboring the hope that we would one day win another international beauty title soon. Heck, it's been almost two decades of not having won and frankly, I have never been among those who think beauty pageants are all fluff. I am not saying, though, that winning something like this is akin to winning a literary award. Pageants as a whole try to showcase that a woman can be both pretty AND intelligent. A lot of the ladies vying as Miss Universe, Miss World and the like are actually very smart, apart from being very easy on the eyes. Luckily for us, the title drought is now over with the crowning of Precious Lara Quigaman in the recently concluded 2005 Miss International competition. This is our fourth win and am tickled pink about it. Am even prouder of the way she carried herself throughout the program. Although the pageant wasn't televised here at all, people have been kind enough to forward purported "highlights" such as these via email...

Here is how she introduced herself to the world:
"MABUHAY! Representing the democratic and freedom-loving people of the Pearl of the Orient, I am Precious Lara Quigaman, from the beautiful country of THE PHILIPPINES"

She also gave as good as she got in the Q&A portion:
Question: "What do you say to the people of the world who have typecasted Filipinos as nannies?"
Answer: "I take no offense on being typecasted as a nanny. But I do take offense that the educated people of the world have somehow denegrated the true sense and meaning of what a nanny is. Let me tell you what she is. She is someone who gives more than she takes. She is someone you trust to look after the very people most precious to you - your child, the elderly, yourself. She is the one who has made a living out of caring and loving other people. So to those who have typecasted us as nannies, thank you. It is a testament to the loving and caring culture of the Filipino people and for that, I am forever proud and grateful of my roots and culture."
She got thunderous applause and a standing ovation from the audience.

Lara has a national vocational qualification in media productions and is a communications graduate from Filton College in Britain where her mother worked as a nurse. She first studied for one year at UST, and continued her schooling wherever her mother worked (first in Bahrain then in the UK). Her father is a native of Bicol.

Here are other photos of her taken during the pageant:



Feminists the world over will surely not take kindly to this post. They will spout the oft-quoted spiels, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" or "What is essential is invisible to the eye". I do agree but I still would like to give credit where credit is due and in this instance, I hope no one begrudges me the opportunity to congratulate her for a job well done.