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BY RHICK LARS VLADIMER ALBAY
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Tuesday, January 31, 2017
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LET’S face it: even before Maxine Medina opened her mouth to speak during the Top 6 Q&A portion, the odds were already against her.
With Pia Wurtzbach about to end her reign and the Philippines playing host to the annual parade of skin we’ve come to call the Miss Universe pageant, the stakes were high against a Maxine win.
Add to that the lukewarm reception the general public has shown toward her, how the Twitterverse has taken to bashing Maxine and taking her down (one grammatically incorrect Instagram caption at a time), judging her “not good enough” compared to Pia. Let’s also not forget her “Imelda invented the terno” deduction.
As hordes of Filipino pageant fanatics prayed and expected back-to-back crowns for the country, Maxine had to endure the heel-breaking pressure of living up to Pia’s victory and exceeding everyone’s expectations, a burden no other Miss U candidate has had to carry in recent years.
Even Gloria Diaz, the unofficial godmother of all pageant candidates and the patron saint of their gay pageant fans everywhere, took a swipe at Maxine and her “one-in-a-million” chance of winning the Miss U crown.
“She (Maxine) is so pretty. And I don’t care if she speaks English, Tagalog or Bisaya. It doesn’t really matter,” defended the 1969 Miss Universe when people took offense to her putting down Maxine. “This is not naman a Miss Whiz or something like that. This is not a brain contest.”
Mrs. Aiza Seguerra / Film Development Council of the Philippines chairperson Liza Diño expressed a more well-meaning yet subtle jab: “Hire a translator.”
“Focus on her strength. Hindi nya kailangang piloting magpakabihasa sa Ingles para lang magkaroon ng edge para manalo,” said Diño. “Bakit hindi kumuha ng translator para mas Malaya nyang masasagot ang mga tanong?”
Maxine claimed a seat to the Top 13, and then marched into the Final 6 where she was asked probably the most general question of the bunch, as it did not overt involve commenting on Donald Trump and the reemergence of borders and racism: “What is the most significant change you’ve seen in the world in the last 10 years?”
A translator was “on standby” for Maxine but she chose to answer on her own merits of the English language.
“In the last 10 years of being here in the world, I saw all the people bringing in one event like this in Miss Universe,” answered Maxine with a wavering smile. “It’s something big to us that we are one. As one nation, we are all together. Thank you. Maraming salamat po.”
There is no shame in having to hire a translator, a majority of the Top 6 candidates opted to use them, even the newly-crowned Miss Universe, Miss France Iris Mittenaere, claimed the title despite not being confident enough to speak in English for herself.
Having a translator gives one the advantage of more time to mull over a crown-winning answer during the pauses and moments when their interpreter is speaking for them, as well as lifts the burden of having to be fully fluent in English, when you can be comfortable speaking in your mother tongue. Maybe this could serve as a lesson for future Filipina pageant contenders.
Now, here’s the fun part: If Miss Philippines needed to hire a translator, we wouldn’t need to look farther than the Malacañang for a suitable candidate in Presidential Communications secretary Martin Andanar.
The reigning king of spin of Philippine newsknows how to mine gold from any inane statement, as well as deflect outrage and side-step any gaffe or heated statement.
Andanar has had to persistently defend President Rodrigo Duterte every time our commander in chief drops an inflammatory remark or a “politically incorrect” quip, appearing on our TV screens every other day.
He’s mastered the art of the “rhetorical backflip”.Just watch him defend Rody’s martial law threats: “The President has categorically said no to martial law. We therefore decry the latest misreporting that the President will declare martial law simply ‘if he wants to’ or that ‘no one can stop the President from declaring martial law.”
Now imagine Andanar channeling his gift of gab away from trying to defend Duterte’s endless deluge of misogynistic rants and strong-man posturing, and applying it so the Philippines can claim the next Miss Universe crown.
That would increase our chances immensely, Madame Gloria Diaz would agree./PN
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