Marla Pino Alforque of Carcar City wins the 2017 Sinulog Festival Queen pageant (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA).
The emcees in the 2017 Sinulog Festival Queen pageant did a Steve Harvey. It felt like a Miss Universe moment following a mix-up in the announcement of winners when emcees Vince Escario and Jamie Herrell called on Ceydney Balaso of Barangay Labangon as the first runner up in the pageant held at the Cebu City Sports Center earlier tonight.’
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, the guest of honor of the pageant, immediately took to the stage to correct the mistake the emcees made and formally announced that the first runner up of the 2017 Sinulog Festival Queen Pageant was Ivy Tapic of Asturias and not Ms Balaso.
‘We take the responsibility for this mix-up and our apologies to Miss Labangon. You’re very pretty. She’s a very graceful dancer and she deserves to win,” announced Ricky Ballesteros, the executive director of the Sinulog Foundation Inc., which operates the Sinulog Festival Queen pageant.
Miss Labangon actually did not place in the top five of the pageant that was won by Marla Pino Alforque of Carcar City. Ms Alforque was joined by Ivy Tapic of Asturias, first runner up; Cristal Jade Lacid of Talisay City, second runner up; Marilee Cortes from Lanao Del Norte, third runner up; and Lara Therese Delica of Tuburan town, fourth runner up. Steve Harvey, host of the Miss Universe 2015 pageant held in December that year, mistakenly named Colombia’s Ariadna Gutierrez Arevalo as a winner that was actually won by the now reigning Miss Universe, Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach of the Philippines.