Miss Earth organizers hit back at 3 pageant bets

BY ARLO CUSTODIO

NOVEMBER 10, 2018

Lorraine Schuck. PHOTO FROM FACEBOOK

Amid allegations of sexual harassment from a sponsor of the Miss Earth 2018 pageant held in Manila that culminated on November 3 with the proclamation of Nguyen Phuong Khanh of Vietnam as winner, organizer Lorraine Schuck, Carousel Productions executive vice president, issued an official statement that reached The Manila Times on Friday.

Schuck, who was herself a beauty titleholder as 1979 Mutya ng Pilipinas-Asia, clarified immediately, “Delegates of Miss Earth are divided into three groups with each group having three Team Managers and three Philippine National Police [PNP] detail.”

She explained, “At the very start of the pageant, the Team Managers brief all the delegates on several matters including, but not limited to, what their activities will be during their stay, the need to rest and sleep early, how to look after their personal stuff like wallets and telephones when they are out, to not believe or ignore people they meet who claim to be one of the pageant’s judges and, most important, to report immediately to their Team Manager or PNP detail if they have any problems whatsoever especially on their safety and security.”

Miss Canada Jaime Yvonne VanderBerg and Miss England Abbey-Anne Gyles-Brown related on Instagram early this week that a sponsor harassed them when they had a private dinner at the Manila Yacht Club. They alleged that the sponsor, named by Miss Guam Emma Mae Sheedy as Amado S. Cruz also on Instagram on Thursday, Team Managers and PNP details assigned to their group were isolated in an adjacent room, thereby making the person able to proceed with his overtures.

“In a function last October 14, Miss Canada and Miss England reported to their Team Managers that they felt like being sexually harassed by one of the function’s sponsors. The moment the office told me about the incident, I called the Team Managers immediately and asked them what happened. Right there and then I told the Team Manager to give the phone to Miss England and then to Miss Canada so I could talk to them and find out what happened. I assured them that the Miss Earth organization does not condone nor tolerate any rude or immoral behavior toward the delegates by sponsors or anybody for that matter. I immediately instructed our Project Director to ban the alleged perpetrator from all further functions and events. I reminded the Team Managers and police security detail to be more vigilant in making sure that none of the candidates experiences this unfortunate incident again.”

Schuck also clarified, “Subsequently, I requested all the delegates to submit a written statement to me to enable me to find out directly from them if they experienced a similar incident so we could take appropriate action. I also wanted to find out if any of the other delegates could corroborate the complaint of Miss Canada and Miss England so we could use the statements to help the two in case they decided to file a case against the alleged harasser. We were ready to support the two in any action they may have wished to take against the individual who offended them. Unfortumately, instead of working together with us on this matter they opted to go to social media and discredit and disparage the organization.”

As to the allegations of VanderBerg that Miss Earth confiscated her passport, the pageant organizer said that since the contest started there were instances that delegates misplaced or lost their passports.

“The Miss Earth Organization does not confiscate passports of delegates. In the 18 yerars we’ve been doing this pageant, there had been several instances of candidates misplacing or losing their passports. We hold the delegates passports for safekeeping and to faciliate their check-in for their domestic flights and accommodations. The delegates are free to keep their passports if they want to. We make them sign a waiver that should they lose or misplace their passport, the organization would not be responsible for it. Incidentally, Miss Liberia who was supposed to fly back to her country last November 5 was not allowed to fly because she had misplaced her passport. She had to stay overnight in the airport because she was not allowed to reenter the country and go back to the hotel without a passport.”

Schuck asserted the good aim of the pageant, “The Miss Earth organization has always looked and continued to look after the safety, security and welfare of its candidates. It has not and will never condone nor tolerate any offensive or indecent acts or behavior to be committed toward or against any of its delegates and staff.”

The subject of the delegates’ complaint has been off from social media since Thursday. His last Facebook post about a sexual joke on the difference of a callgirl, girlfriend and wife with response as “prepaid, postpaid and unlimited” elicited strong reactions from netizens.

Gutierrez Abby said, “G..o ka pinahiya mo Pilipinas (What a fool. You’re a shame to the Philippines)! Alam mong buong bansa ang dala ng bawat candidates na pangalan nagawa mo pa bastusin (You knew the candidates were representing their countries, yet you were lewd to them)!”

https://www.manilatimes.net/miss-earth-organizers-hit-back-at-3-pageant-bets/465107/