BINIBINING PILIPINAS Universe Maxine Medina (third from left and her court): Bb. Pilipinas International Kylie Verzosa, Miss Intercontinental Jennifer Hammond, Supranational Joanna Deapara, Grand International Nicole Cordoves, Globe Nichole Manalo. At center, in white, is Miss Universe 2016 Pia Wurtzbach.
How I got security tips and my own endorsement deal from meeting Miss Universe
MICHELLE P. So may just have a prophetic streak.
“This excitement may be like what you might feel if you were going to, say, the Miss Universe pageant,” she says at the airport just before she, Caecent Magsumbol No-ot of the Freeman and I board the plane to watch the International Premier Tennis League at the Mall of Asia.
Both huge tennis fans, they were in the middle of a heated discussion on the player roster for the gargantuan event which PLDT was flying us in for, when they noticed I had not put in a single word. I offered that at least I knew who Serena Williams was, but didn’t add it was because she was rumored to be dating Drake, my future ex boyfriend.
Then came the Miss Universe analogy, which had me nodding. Yes, I told her. That would be my version of the IPTL.
Barely a year after, PLDT extended another invitation.
INSTAX photo of me and Pia Wurtzbach. Signed by Miss Universe too!
It wasn’t to the Rolls Royce of beauty pageants, but quite close. I was to fly in to watch the Binibining Pilipinas live, and to make the #MostBeautifulConnection. I was also to meet the reigning Miss Universe herself. Michelle So, I was finally giddy.
Pia Wurtzbach is many pounds thinner in person, and so elongated she would be spindly if it wasn’t for the fact that she was so well endowed; she appeared perfectly rounded. We chance upon her shooting the new campaign of PLDT inside the ballroom of the Novotel Araneta Center, which had been turned into a makeshift studio. I sidle next to her bodyguard Mike, a handsome hefty type with an easy smile despite his job.
New Yorker? Yes, he says, surprised I could make him out. Mike, former NYPD, has been on the Miss Universe detail for at least 10 queens, since the time of Trump.
“Pia is special,” he admits. “People light up when they see her on the streets!” But isn’t that true of all the former Miss Universe winners? He smiles, no. The Filipino is a special breed, he says.
I find myself quizzing him on his job. “I look at people’s eyes,” he says. “It’s always a red flag when someone in a crowd is looking another direction when the Miss Universe is there. You’re supposed to be looking her way, why are you looking elsewhere?”
He also admits that his bond with these girls is special: “I have sons. These girls are like my daughters! Every single one of them.”
MAXINE MENDOZA (left) and Kylie Verzosa (right) when they were crowned Bb. Pilipinas Universe and International, respectively
By the time Pia has changed into her daytime clothes (a sexy white crop top that shows off her enviable midsection over a subtly sexy pink pencil-cut skirt), she is already charming two sets of fans who won an online PLDT contest. The prize was this 5 minutes with her, a precious slice for an admirer.
TWINNING. Luis Garcia and Luis Quibranza of Sunstar, my dapper dates for Binibining Pilipinas 2016
The first winner, a woman, has brought Pia a shirt she had made for her, which the queen accepts graciously. The second pair, two men, eagerly hand her a bouquet of flowers (“Pia gets kilig when she receives flowers, so we brought some for her!”). They know her very well, Pia is visibly pleased when she receives the blooms. “I love flowers, yay!”
I also made another beautiful connection that day. Jojie Alcantara, a veteran journalist and fellow travel writer and photographer (we both write for Mabuhay and Smile magazines) from Davao confesses something: “I didn’t know quite how to introduce myself to you because the last time I saw you, we were in the ladies’s room!” We laugh, because our paths had crossed so many times professionally, and yet we’ve never spoken a word to each other until today.
Jojie turned out to be a fantastic hoot and a half, and generous with her Fujifilm lenses for me to try (we both endorse the brand, in my case thanks to F8’s Ryan Go and Jojie’s backing).
I like the web I got entangled in this time around. Very much.
