Philippines' bet, Shamcey Supsup, placed third runner up in the just concluded Ms Universe 2011 held in Brazil. The crown was placed on the head of Ms Angola, Leila Lopes, who stole Venus Raj's head piece from last year's Ms Universe pageant.
I thought Shamcey Supsup got in the bag during the Q&A portion. Unlike her predecessors who more or less kissed their chances of running with the Ms Universe crown with their answers, Shamcey gave a clear and solid answer to the question from Hollywood actress Viveca A Fox.
The question: "Would you change your religious belief to marry the person you love? Why or Why not?"
The answer: "If I have to change my religious beliefs, I would not marry the person that I love. Because the first person that I love is God, who created me."
Di ba pageant na pageant ang sagot? Waging waging. To those who are saying Shamcey should have answered this way or that way, just STFU! You may have the better answer, but you don't have the beauty to sashay down that stage.
Even the queen of talk, Oprah Winfrey weighed in on the results of the 60th Ms Universe coronation night. Oprah thinks that if the winner were to be based on the Q&A alone, Ms Philippines deserved the crown. Shamcey Supsup gave a straight answer, without the benefit of a few seconds to think courtesy of the interpreter.
Filipino beauty pageant trainers and even Filipino beauty pageant watchers tend to prefer our candidates in these international beauty competitions to be fluent in the English language. But I think Latin America and other non-English speaking countries have it right. Use an interpreter during the Q&A to give the contestant a few seconds to organize her answer. Those top 4 contenders understood and speak English. They just preferred to employ an interpreter because they could better express themselves in their native tongue, and a few seconds wouldn't hurt them.
It's about time we hear Filipino spoken in the international stage through a beauty pageant contestant. It's a strategy of hurts during Q&A, the bane of most Pinay beauty bets. Moreover, we would likely to see the unseating of James Soriano from his high horse by showing him that Tagalog is not just the language of the streets and the uneducated.
It's unfortunate the fans are not the judges because if they were, Shamcey would have been the winner fer sure. There are "official" judges who get their cue from pageant organizers who get their cue from Donald Trump, the combover owner of the Ms Universe organization.
Oh well, there's still next year. Hopefully, our future Pinay bet would place 2nd runner-up.
