The Miss Philippines-Asia Pacific Worldwide Blessa Figueroa. Picture: INQUIRER.internet/Armin P. Adina
The Philippines is probably the most profitable Asian nation in international pageantry, reaping titles from numerous contests all through the many years, and even changing into probably the most profitable nation in a number of competitions together with the Miss Asia Pacific Worldwide pageant.
Bless Figueroa, the Philippines’ consultant within the international tilt’s “comeback version” this 12 months, shared her ideas on why the nation has collected probably the most crowns within the 56-year-old worldwide competitors, with 5 winners to this point.
“I believe we embody the Miss Asia Pacific Worldwide pageant’s core values. They worth magnificence in variety. And I believe, being a Filipina, we’re all around the world, and we embody all cultures,” she instructed INQUIRER.internet on the sidelines of her send-off press convention held at Empire Studios on the Estancia Mall in Pasig Metropolis final month.
“When folks ask you, what’s a Filipino? We’re an embodiment of all cultures, like, we’re from Spain, we’re from Asia, we’re all over the place. So I believe that’s one of many essential causes, as a result of we’ve got the core values that they maintain,” continued the California-based full-blooded Filipino contender.
The Philippines, nonetheless, was a “slow-burner” within the Manila-based international tilt, and didn’t turn into a powerhouse early on. The nation posted its first victory solely within the contest’s sixteenth version held in 1982, via Maria Del Carmen Inez Zaragoza.
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The nation scored a second consecutive win in 1983 with Gloria Dimayacyac, adopted by the Philippines’ third victory in 1989 courtesy of Lorna Legaspi. The fourth Filipino queen is Michelle Aldana, who gained in 1994.
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And some years after the worldwide tilt resumed from a decade-long hiatus in 2016, the Philippines recorded its fifth victory in Sharifa Areef Mohammad Omar Akeel in the course of the pageant’s fiftieth anniversary version in 2018.
The worldwide pageant final held a contest in 2019, and didn’t mount any contest in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The break prolonged in 2022 and 2023, and Figueroa has blended emotions about collaborating within the “comeback version.”
“There’s positively some strain there, however I’m honored that I’m representing the Philippines after 4 years. And I can’t describe it any greater than pleasure and gratefulness,” she shared.
Figueroa is the Philippines’ first Miss Asia Pacific Worldwide delegate to not come from the Mutya ng Pilipinas pageant. She was a finalist within the first staging of The Miss Philippines Tradition and Heritage Celebration in October final 12 months, and acquired her international project in February.
As a seasoned pageant lady who has competed in each the US and the Philippines, Figueroa finds that such competitions are nonetheless related in a time the place nations are gripped by wars, famine, calamities and different issues.
“Pageantry performs an enormous position in these elements, as a result of we’ve got a platform to have the ability to communicate up on them, like, proper now I’m capable of communicate up concerning the wars, the famine. And I do know that it isn’t in my energy to unravel so much, however I can convey up the subject, educate folks, and unfold consciousness,” she defined.
“I believe that’s one of many essential roles of being a magnificence queen. You’re spreading consciousness and educating folks about these matters, in order that extra persons are educated about it, and extra change can occur. I believe huge modifications are made up of small ones. And simply spreading the knowledge is already having an enormous change about that,” Figueroa added.
She and her fellow delegates within the 2024 Miss Asia Pacific Worldwide pageant will face a vital stage of the competition quickly, with the preliminary competitors happening at Lanson Place Mall of Asia in Pasay Metropolis on Thusday afternoon, Oct. 3.
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The 2024 Miss Asia Pacific Worldwide coronation evening will probably be held on the Newport Performing Arts Theater in Pasay Metropolis on Monday evening, Oct. 7. Thirty-three delegates from all over the world are competing for the crown at the moment held by Cheyenne Huisman from Spain.
