Tagbilaran, Sunday, 27 July 2008 18:25:10
After a two-year break, the search for the most beautiful Boholana came to an end Friday, July 18, at the Bohol Cultural Center.
There were 14 lovely and beautiful ladies giving the judges a tough time picking the winners. In the end, Joy Marie Maglajos representing Catigbian emerged as the new Miss Bohol Sandugo 2008 crowned by Miss Bohol Sandugo 2005 Anna Maris Igpit.
Chandrina Elluiska Schreurs was declared 1st runner-up gathering most of the special awards, while Michelle Latras was proclaimed 2nd runner-up and the darling of the press.
After declaring the winner, True had gathered them for an interview... once more answering to a grueling Q and A.
They are not just gorgeous looking they make a lot sense.
And they are, drum roll please...
Joy Marie Maglajos.
Winning a beauty title can be radically life-changing. How do you think the Miss Bohol Sandugo title will change your life?
Joy Marie: There are very big changes in my life especially that I am now working... and I don’t know yet of my schedule.
Chandrina: I will be busier, since I’m also studying and SK chairman in our town. Yeah, I will have to be more conscious of my actions.
Michelle: I think this is just the beginning...maybe following the footsteps of Miss Anna Maris Igpit.
Who’s your role model?
Joy Marie: The people of Catigbian. They inspire me a lot.
Chandrina: Anna Maris Igpit because she is the first Boholana to win a Binibini crown and represented our country in the Miss World. She’s deserving of the title.
Michelle: Anna Maris Igpit. She is really proud to be a Boholana.
What is your best asset and why?
Joy Marie: Just being my self... wherever I am, what ever I do, I’m just being myself.
Chandrina: Smile. My smile brings encouragement to the people.
Michelle: My smile. Giving your warmest smile you can really show to the people you’re sincere what you feel for them.
Would you go for beauty or brains?
Joy Marie: You can be beautiful if you’re intelligent.
Chandrina: Brains. What is beauty if your brain is empty, right?
Michelle: Can I choose both? I rather choose for brains. Even if you have the beauty but if your brain is empty...and having a brain with a good character you look beautiful in the eyes of the other.
What is the essence of being a Miss Bohol Sandugo?
Joy Marie: Being 23 years old, just be yourself... I believe in my self. I show to tem the real me.
Chadrina: A role model and a goddess of beauty.
Michelle: Sandugo festival is a celebration of treaty of friendship. If we will relate this to our present times, our country is facing problems, we should live the ideals if Sandugo—peace, brotherhood and friendship.. with that we would achieve our goals betterment of the Filipino nation. I will be a role model for life.
These are some of our favorite and memorable lines from our candidates making our night complete.
Host: If I will go to (name of town) asa ko nimo dad-on first?
Candidate: I bring you in our church
Host: (naming the church)
Candidate: Yes.. that it is
(Wow, very religious)
Host: If you were a pet or a domestic animal what would you be?
Candidate: If I were a domesticated pet or animal I would like to be a frog. Ladies and gentlemen, as we all know that a frog is an amphibian.. it drives into aquatic environment and into terrestrial environment... ladies and gentlemen...I would like to experience the life of a frog... in its aquatic environmental and terrestrial environment...and I would like to experience the essence of being a frog.
(Kokak!)
Host: What is the thing you can’t live without?
Candidate: The thing I can’t live without is Jesus Christ because for me Jesus Christ is my strength , he is my rock I can depend on... and without him I am nothing.
(Amen!)
Host: If you were an animated superhero, who would you be and why?
Candidate: Thank you that animated question... If I were granted to be animated superhero.. I want to be a Supergirl... aside from her looks, she doesn’t count the cost of helping other people from disaster.
(I'm the life of the party... So contagious)
Host: If you were to be someone else who would you be?
Candidate: Before I answer to that high provoking and not so tough question... I repeat, good evening everyone.. My answer to that question. I would be the person of Princess Diana because she is known to be the ambassadress of goodwill. She helped the needy people and the sick children.
(Too charitable!)
Host: What will you do?
Candidate: (At the stage ready to perform) I will perform there on stage.
(Where again?)
Candidate: This is (name) 18 years of old! (Huh?!)
Host: How do you feel tonight? Are you nervous?
Candidate: I feel nervous... but still I manage.
(Very confident)
P.S. My congratulations to Ms Baby Colins, the project director of this year’s Miss Bohol Sandugo, Kim, Dave Maulas, Alexis Cadeliña, the pageant choreographer and Jerameel Decsa, te technical director and lights designer.
It was no doubt that the lass from Trinidad town would be the Miss Bohol Sandugo 2008 Miss Talent. When she appeared on stage to perform “balitaw,” Maria Angeli Cielo Cajes became an instant crowd favorite.
It was not difficult for her to share her talent because singing is already in her veins.
Nowadays, people might look down people who sing local folk songs like balitaw.
The wide repertoire of Visayan songs includes ballads, lullabies, harana (serenade), children's songs, working songs, drinking songs, nonsense songs, and a lively song-and-dance debate called balitaw.
Cielo’s rendention of Susan Fuentes 1980’s Mga Kinaham ni Lolo was not the usual singing of a balitaw. She is able to communicate much more intimately and subtly than singers who belt out tunes in the big, broad theatrical style. There she is, nose-to-nose with you. She can’t very well start mugging like a stage ham, when a half-smile or a wink would make her feelings clear.
Her regal presence is pure elegance and charm.
Cielo says that her knack for singing started when she was just a little kid. Her family are of balitaw singers. One can expect that when you visit her home in Trinidad, you might be surprised they are all experts singing balitaw.
Balitaw is a song-and-dance debate between a man and a woman. More often sung than danced, it is a Visayan art form which existed in the region long before the Spaniards came. The early natives called the song oyayi and the dance baya-i. The Spaniards called the dance valse (waltz). The natives adapted the word valse to bal and added tawo (the Visayan word for 'people'). Thus was coined the term balitaw, meaning "dance of the people".
Visayan debate songs, of which the balitaw is the best example, are usually sung at a festive gathering by a man-woman pair who must also be good dancers and actors. The examples that follow are jovial jousts on love and marriage.
Cielo is best remembered for having the best talent in the Miss Bohol Sandugo history.
(Email leoudtohan@yahoo.com. Or visit www.bohol.ph)
Leo P. Udtohan