PAGEANT fans in the Philippines on Sunday were hyped for a new batch of beauty queen contenders this year.
The coronation night of this year’s Binibining Pilipinas at the Smart Araneta Coliseum was the culmination to determine which deserving ladies would represent the country in upcoming international beauty pageants.
However, questions for the crucial Q&A portion of the Binibining Pilipinas were allegedly leaked before the event started.
Two questions assigned to Nadine Lustre, who was among the panel judges, were shown in one of her photos.
Twitter user Zeke Martin shared a photo of Lustre where the questions were accidentally disclosed and juxtaposed it to a close-up version.
It’s not certain who captured the shot but it was uploaded on Viva Artists Agency’s official Instagram account.
The two questions were:
“What advice would you give to a 16-year-old girl for her to become more socially aware and to become an empowered young lady?”
“How do you react to rape jokes?”
Martin theorized that the candidate who would answer one of the questions could have some advantage in having prepared it beforehand.
“If ever a Binibini will be asked the 2nd question from Nadine and answer it greatly, she would probably be the next Miss Universe Philippines,” Martin said in the caption.
Despite the minor mishap, Lustre still asked the following questions during the coronation night of the local pageant held at the Araneta Coliseum on June 9.
The first question was given to Maria Andrea Abesamis of Pasig. Abesamis’ answer was:
“My advice to a 16-year-old girl is [for her] to read more and also understand life because in the future if you don’t read more or understand life you wouldn’t know what’s really happening and that would be a hard thing for you. And that’s it, thank you.”
Meanwhile, the second went to Samantha Mae Bernardo of Palawan. Bernardo’s answer was:
“It’s so sad that a lot of people are bringing jokes about rape. It is not normal for us Filipinos. We should all stand up as women to use our voice against sexual harassment. And I think it is nice that our government is doing something with safe spaces and the bill that they pass so that women around the world, especially in the Philippines, can have a safe environment for all of us. Thank you.”
Neither Abesamis nor Bernardo won the coveted title crown.
The new Binibining Pilipinas 2019 titleholder is Gazini Ganados of Cebu. Ganados will represent the Philippines in the prestigious Miss Universe competition later this year.
Miss Universe 2018 also made her final speech as she passed the crown to Ganados. (Philnews)
