BEAUTY queen-turned actress and now educator Precious Lara Quigaman-Alcaraz flew back home to the Philippines to help recruit new members to the “sisterhood” known as Binibining Pilipinas.
The 2005 Miss International winner and fourth Filipino woman to bring home the crown headed the committee for the final screening of applicants held at the New Frontier Theater at the Araneta City in Quezon City on Monday afternoon, March 23.
“It’s been three years since my last Bb. Pilipinas screening. It really feels good, it always feels like going back home,” Quigaman told Inquirer Entertainment on the sidelines of the final screening.
She has been based in Canada with her husband Marco Alcaraz and their three sons. She arrived on March 13, and was set to return to the Great White North on March 24, the day after her reunion with her Bb. Pilipinas sisters.
Quigaman said she was impressed with the applicants who advanced to the final screening. “They’re very articulate, very, very smart, and of course, our candidates are all very beautiful,” she said.
Before the final screening started, she went to see the applicants backstage for a pep talk. “I shared where I started. I told them I first joined when some of them were in diapers or not even born. It has been that long,” Quigaman shared.
She told the applicants that she did not have a lot when she first joined, no glam team, not in a nice dress, and did not even have a swimsuit. And she was still able to win the crown, eventually, despite the circumstances.
“If they’re here, it was not an accident. They’re here because they have what it takes, they stood out from the rest, and they’re determined. So I just really encouraged them, and I just give them some advice. And I told them that more than the walk, the talk, we also want to hear their stories,” Quigaman continued.
For this year’s edition of the national competition, 36 applicants successfully passed the final screening and have now become official Bb. Pilipinas candidates.
The roster includes Miss Universe Philippines alumnae Gwendoline Meliz Soriano, Jarina Sandhu and Sasha Lacuna; Mutya ng Pilipinas queens Stacey De Ocampo and Anne Klein Castro; and Patricia Lynn Beerda and Ivy Padilla from the same Miss Teen Philippines batch that produced Bb. Pilipinas queens Nicole Borromeo and Myrna Esguerra. (Armin P. Adina © Philippine Daily Inquirer)
