Jamie’s winning moment at the Miss Earth pageant.
The year 2014 will go down pageant history as the year of the Cebuana.
No less than our very own Sinulog Festival Queen 2013 and Reyna ng Aliwan 2013 and Miss Mega Cebu 2013 20-year-old Jamie del Rosario Herrell won our second Miss Earth crown for the country (the first Asian and Filipina to win the crown is also a Cebuana back in 2008, Karla Paula Henry).
A former Miss Cebu-turned Binibining Pilipinas Kris Tiffany Janson wowed the world too with her second runner-up finish at the Miss Intercontinental held in Germany (although many pageant observers believe she was robbed off the crown).
Miss Intercontinental 2md runner-up Kris Janson. (PHOTO BY XAVIER SOLIS)
This year’s Miss Cebu first runner-up Eva Psychee Patalinjug won Mutya ng Pilipinas Asia Pacific International 2014 and is set to compete internationally next year (although she failed to make a three-peat bid at the Miss Tourism Queen with a record-holding back to back victory of two Cebuana beauties (Rizzini Alexis Gomez and Angeli Dione Gomez, respectively.)
Psychee Patalinghug
Another Cebuana who won the Reyna ng Aliwan title in 2010 Rogelie Catacutan clinched the Miss Casino Fiipino 2014 and all eyes are on her for next year’s Binibining Pilipinas.
Rogelie Catacutan
Speaking of back-to-back victories, the year 2014 saw the record-shattering triumph of Cebu as a powerhouse city in the Reyna ng Aliwan pageant for five straight years with Steffi Aberasturi winning the title (From Sian Elizabeth Maynard in 2009 to Rogelie Catacutan the year after to Rizzini Alexis Gomez to Angelie Gomez to Jamie Herell to Steph Aberasturi) sealing a grand slam feat no other city has ever done before.
Aberasturi
A Cebuana too was crowned Mrs. Globe Philippines 2014 in the person of Dr. Stephanie Tiro-Sitoy but she was unjustly dethroned by the organizers barely a week before the international pageant in China. The case is now in the courts so discussing the merit would be inappropriate. Suffice it to say that this is evidently manifesting beauty pageant’s ugly twin—to be at the mercy of pageant organizers.
Stephanie Sitoy
The Cebuanos also performed very well in the male pulchritude pageants led by former Mr. Lapu-Lapu City Judah Jireh Cohen who earned the right to be the country’s representative in the Mister International Tourism next year in Panama as well as another Mr. Lapu-Lapu City in the person of Alvin Arranguez winning the Mr. Diverse Culture-Philippines 2014.
Judah Jireh Cohen
Our country’s second crown this year belongs to Odessa Mae Tadaya from Guimba, Nueva Ecija who brought honors to the country by winning Miss Heritage 2014 held in Johannesburg, South Africa very recently last December 20.
A win is a win so despite one beauty being dethroned, #TeamCebu can still lay claim that 2014 was indeed a continuation of the many harvests to the titles that place back the jewel in the true crown of the Queen City of the South, Cebu or otherwise known in pageant-speak as the City of Queens.