Borongan City’s lead dancer is Sinulog Festival Queen 2020

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Monika Afable, a 17-year-old senior high school student from Borongan City, Eastern Samar, was crowned Sinulog Festival Queen 2020.

For winning the crown, Afable who is the lead dancer of Tribu Rayhak, won P150,000 in cash and P280,000 worth of franchise package of a milk tea brand.

The Grade 11 student of Eastern Samar National Comprehensive High School won four special awards: Best in Runway, McDonald’s Festival Queen, Miss Mang Inasal and Miss Robinsons Galleria Festival Queen.

By winning Sinulog Festival Queen 2020, Afable will automatically represent Cebu in the Miss Millennial Philippines 2020 pageant.

Afable was crowned Binibining Baysay Borongan on August 2019.

Last November 2019, she had a first runner-up finish in the search for Binibining Silangang Samar Turismo 2019.

Afable’s victory marked the end of the three-hour show that started with an opening number which gave the festival queens the chance to shine as they wore costumes in red and gold colors.

” [I am] very happy po kasi ako ang nanalo (because I am the winner). Despite sa gibug-atan ko sa akong costume gitagaan akon ng gift ni Sto. Niño (I was given this gift by Sto. Niño as I wore my heavy costume.),” Afable told CDN Digital.

READ: Festival queens shine in red, gold colors in coronation night’s opening number

Jesselle Saniel of Talisay City’s Inasal Festival won first runner-up while Jane Genobisa of Carcar City’s Kabkaban Festival won second runner-up.

The third runner-up award went to Sabrina Board of Banay Labangon (Barangay Labangon, Cebu City), while Nathalie Shaw of Barangay Cambinocot’s Maampoong Cambihanon wrapped up the competition with a fourth runner-up finish.

It was a tough competition for the 11 candidates which started at around 8:43 p.m.

Organizers experienced technical issues at 9:06 p.m. when the lights went out on stage while hosts Vince Escario and Karla Henry were announcing the winners of the first set of special awards.

Sinulog Festival Queen, which started in 2004, is an annual search for the best Sinulog lead dancer.

This means that the ladies have to show confidence and grace on stage while wearing heavy costumes and larger-than-life props.

Sinulog Festival Queen is not a regular pageant where contestants sashay the runway in swimwear and evening gown

There is no question-and-answer question.

The lead dancers perform with their group. They also showcase their talent during their solo performance.

Guidelines

According to the guidelines, the competition is divided into different phases with each phase bearing particular points.

These are: pre-judging for beauty and figure (25 points); opening production number (15 points); group production presentation (30 points); solo performance (20 points); and festival costume (10 points).

The panel of judges was composed of: Annie Divinagracia Sartorio, Shaila Rebortera, Angie Louie, Nestor Jardin and Al Ryan Alejandre.

Other members of the panel of judges: Hwang Woon Ki, Paolo Ballesteros, John Herrera and Cary Santiago

Awards

Talisay City’s Saniel won Best in Opening Production Number.

The designer of Carcar City’s Festival Queen,Jane Genobisa, won Best in Festival Costume.

Genobisa won Best in Solo Performance.

Banay Labangon, with lead dancer Sabrina Board, won Best in Instrumentation and  Best in Group Presentation.

READ: Sinulog Festival Queen 2020: Special Awards

Winners of the major awards received P10,000 in cash.

The Sinulog Festival Queen 2020 received P150,000. The first runner-up and second runner-up received P100,000 and P50,000 respectively.

The third runner-up wom P30,000 while the fourth runner-up will go home with P20,000.

All candidates will receive P20,000 in financial assistance.

This year, five ladies are from five out-of-town contingents namely: Beverly Binghay of Tribu Pintaflores (San Carlos City, Negros Occidental); Shelah Faye Juntilla of Tribu Sinanduloy Cultural Dance Troup (Tangub City, Misamis Occidental);Catherine Tabaniag of Kulturang Panglaoanon (Panglao, Bohol); Fe Tano of Pakol Festival (Santa Catalina, Negros Oriental); and Monika Afable of Tribu Rayhak (Borongan, Eastern Samar).

The ladies from Cebu contingents are:

Mary Love Lopez of Banay San Nicolasnon (Barangay San Nicolas Proper, Cebu City); Jane Genobisa of Kabkaban Festival (Carcar City, Cebu) ; Nathalie Shaw of Tribu Maampoong Cambihanon of Barangay Cambinocot; Jesselle Saniel of Inasal Festival (Talisay City, Cebu); Jessalyn De Los Santos of Siloy Festival (Alcoy, Cebu), and Sabrina Bogard od Banay Labangon (Barangay Labangon, Cebu City). / celr