ILOILO City – There will be no Miss Iloilo Paraw Regatta beauty pageant despite the return of the face-to-face Iloilo Paraw Regatta Festival this year.
According to Iloilo Festivals Foundation, Inc. (IFFI) executive director Joyce Clavecillas, due to time constraints they opted to do away with the staging of Miss Paraw Regatta 2023.
However, she noted the Paraw Regatta Festival will still have its official representative to Miss Earth Philippines.
Clavecillas said one of the Top 5 finalists of the Miss Iloilo 2023 will represent Iloilo in the said national pageant.
The Miss Iloilo 2023 was Raniele Shaine S. Saulog. Her runners-up were Chloei Darl Z. Gabales (1st runner-up), Tracy Lois Bedua (2nd runner-up), Ma. Cristina Isabel N. Tallador (3rd runner-up), and Jeraldine B. Quimson (4th runner-up).
Clavecillas said the Miss Paraw Regatta 2023 will be officially introduced during one of the events of this year’s festival.
This will be the fourth year of no Miss Paraw Regatta. In the past three years, the local beauty pageant and the festival itself were scrapped due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
Pre-pandemic, the Miss Paraw Regatta was one of the highlights of the festival.
The return of this largest sailing event in the Philippines and the oldest “traditional craft event” in Asia is slated on March 12 to 17 where around 80 paraw racers are targeted to participate in the sailing competition./PN
