By RODNEY J. JALECOa – VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia — A beauty contest sans swimsuits, where contestants don’t have to sell ballots to win and are still able to draw the crowd and sponsors. For the past 22 years, that has been the winning formula for the 45,000-strong Filipino American community here.
The Miss Philippines America pageant is one of the oldest and most prestigious Fil-Am beauty contests in North America’s eastern seaboard. Over the years, it has drawn contestants from as far north as Canada, all the way south to Florida.
Dr. Manny Hipol, a retired US Navy captain and chief organizer of the pageant, explained that Fil-Am community leaders thought of the concept in the early 1980s to offer an alternative to the common practice among beauty competitions then.
Most pageants, he explained, were fund-raising tools for their organizers. Notwithstanding the ultimate beneficiaries of such projects, Dr. Hipol said pageants lost their original purpose to celebrate the noblest virtues of young Fil-Am women.
“True beauty became only secondary,” he observed.
When the pageant was launched, organizers also decided to shun the popular swimsuit category. The Filipinos in Hampton Roads – which lumps southern Virginia’s coastal cities of Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Newport News and Chesapeake, among others – is composed mainly of retired US Navy servicemen. In fact, Dr. Hipol says, 90 percent of the Fil-Am community here can trace their roots to service in US Navy.
A swimsuit competition did not sit well with the relatively conservative Fil-Am community in Hampton Roads, so they decided to discard it altogether.
Dr. Hipol ribbed a common Pinoy limitation, saying the contestant didn’t even need to be tall to win the beauty tilt.
“This is an opportunity to explore their talents, and who else will recognize them but the community itself,” he explained.
And unlike most beauty pageants, the Miss Philippines-America has flourished under this format.
Held every summer, this year’s pageant was held at the Philippine Cultural Center in Virginia Beach. The $1 million-edifice was built solely on government grants and private donations. It’s one of a kind in Virginia and serves as a magnet for Fil-Am families, especially during the weekends.
This year’s contestants were screened beforehand. The six who finally made it on stage were 17-year-old Janet Rosaline Nagaj of Georgia; nurse Elizabeth Paragas Solis; Erica Nadera of Paramus, New Jersey; Marillis Pineiro of Bergenfield, New Jersey; advertising senior Kristine Torres of Virginia; and 17-year-old Nena Sausa Fiske of New York.
Miss Philippines-America 2006 titlist Katie Zimmerman of Georgia was able to visit her family’s home province of Iloilo as part of her prize last year. In her valedictory, she recounted how winning the pageant helped open doors that she ordinarily would have not entered. That included TV interviews in Manila, meeting Iloilo Gov. Niel Tupas Sr. and being feted with a motorcade in her mother’s hometown of Lambunao.
Chosen based on their performance in the talent segment (30%), evening gown (25%) and how they respond to two sets of interviews (45%), judges voted for New Jersey high school student Erica Nadera to be Miss Philippines-America 2007.
She displayed her terrific singing voice and ballet training. Now it’s her turn to enjoy the limelight.
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