Beautiful inside and out

The contestants of Miss Earth dazzle with their looks and their outlook on several pressing issues today

By: Regina Mae Parungao - Published October 24, 2017, 12:05 AM
EXCLUSIVE:

Now on its 17th year, Miss Earth continues to build on its reputation as the most relevant worldwide beauty pageant, setting a legacy of beauty and responsibility.

Some of the candidates to this year’s Miss Earth pageant (Photos by Camille Ante/Manila Bulletin)

Some 87 delegates actively promote the preservation of the environment and the protection of Mother Earth. The theme of this year’s pageant is “Heroines Fighting Climate Change.”

The 2017 Miss Earth finals night is on Nov. 4 at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City. This is the nth time the pageant will be held in the country since its inception in 2001.

A few weeks before coronation night, Bulletin Entertainment landed an exclusive interview with some of the candidates including Emerlinda de Matos (Angola), Karen Rojas (Peru), Ingrid Franco (Dominican Republic), Fernanda Rodriguez (Costa Rica), Viktoria Viczian (Hungary), Yasuyo Saito (Japan), and Nazarova Begimai (Kyrgyzstan).

The beautiful ladies shared their experiences in the country, their preparations and sacrifices for the competition, as well as each of their advocacy:

WARM WELCOME

Miss Angola: “I love the people here and the city of Manila is so very nice. We love the food here and there’s a lot of it so it’s hard to choose which one is out favorite.”

Miss Hungary: “Filipinos are so amazing and so kind. The support that we get from them, given the fact that we are not Filipinos – it’s really surprising. There are a lot of things I want to experience here so it’s really a pleasure to be given a chance to visit the Philippines and to be able to represent my country.”

Miss Costa Rica: “Philippines is like home now. The people are very hospitable to beauty queens. When they see us on the streets, they come and take one picture. Also, they are saying so many good things to us to make us feel at home. I think, the best thing Philippines has is really the people.”

Miss Kyrgyzstan: “This is my first time in the Philippines and I’m happy that I’m having a nice stay here. I hope I could visit some of the historical places here and also the beaches.”

HARD WORK

Miss Hungary: “We have a lot of preparations for the competition. It includes our mind, our body and our soul. We have lots of rehearsals, and we also prepare our clothes for the big night. It’s really stressful but exciting at the same time.”

Miss Costa Rica: “We prepared ourselves for some tests, like the talent and swimsuit portion of the pageant. Also, we had to work out and eat healthy foods. Personally, I prepared myself, speech-wise. I practiced how to talk to the public and to the judges.

“I also make sure I always look well in front of cameras. More importantly, I also made myself nice to the persons around me because I believe that’s the essence of being a beauty queen.”

Miss Kyrgyzstan: “I always go to the gym, I keep to a strict diet. I stopped eating chocolates so that I can present myself well in the pageant especially in the swimsuit competition.”

SACRIFICES AND CHALLENGES

Miss Hungary: “The biggest challenge for us is… we are so far away from our countries so we have homesick and we are trying to be as calm as we can because being away from our homeland is really a different feeling than everything.

“It’s like we are alone, nobody knows us and nobody knows our country. So the hardest thing really is to be here.”

Miss Costa Rica: “The challenge for me is the critics because I prepared myself very hard. I’m living in a dream, my name is my country, I represent that.

“Also, the national support is not that much. We are working alone here. It’s like we are trying to do our best, but our countrymen can’t come to support us. We are trying to promote our country name but we don’t feel their presence, that’s really hard.”

BEAUTIES FOR A CAUSE

Miss Peru: “My advocacy is really simple. I believe we need to teach people on how they can protect each other because every simple change should start in ourselves. So if I change, my neighbors can change, too.

“And also in the schools, we need to teach children about what’s happening in environment. They should learn the importance of separating like for example the trash and also how they cannot pollute the air. There are a lot of things we need to do. Every single change, starts from a little way. So let’s start with ourselves.”

Miss Angola: “My advocacy is about environmental education for everyone.”

Miss Peru: “My advocacy is about the importance of recycling in my country. Also I want them to be aware of the dangers of contamination.”

Miss Dominican Republic: “My advocacy is to promote mother care.”

Miss Costa Rica: “Love is the key of everything so we need learn to love our mother earth and take good care of it.”

https://entertainment.mb.com.ph/2017/10/24/beautiful-inside-and-out/