Wednesday, July 02, 2008

8:47 PM | What I Saw Over the Weekend

And now there are six of them. I thought it would be a close call between Guihulngan's Joseph Hornido and Silay's Carlos Ruiz -- but in the end, it was Mabinay's Ralph Jadraque who (to the surprise of many) made it to the ranks of the Hari ng Negros that came before him. Curiously though -- and I usually have good sense for picking winners -- Ralph was the very candidate that first piqued my interest in the beginning when the ball started rolling for the pageant in the mountains of Canlaon. But he seemed like the silent sort, even though that proved deadly, given the hard work he gave for the competition. In a batch that had never been more competitive since 2006, it soon proved difficult to settle on just anyone, and for a while I thought Dumaguete's Michael Angelo Cristobal, Talisay's Orville Cordova, Dauin's Nelson Bandoles, Amlan's Lord Chester Tan, Bayawan's Kareem Capulso, and Vallehermoso's Herzzl Rubia had equal chances as well to bring home the sword.

But my money was definitely on Silay. One of Negros' best young artists, Carlos doesn't look like your conventional pageant patty but he grows on you in leaps and bounds... Bacolod's bet -- who shall remain unnamed because he is actually such a nice guy -- was easily the best-looking one, and actually came in as second runner-up, but truth to tell, he went so far for so little, stumbling through Hari's gloriously notorious Q&A system (a grueling three-part process that really was meant to separate the "thank-you-guys" from the true winner) with answers that seemed like the tattered aftermath of landmines. (And to those who are prone to quip with such tired responses as "This is a beauty pageant, not a quiz bee," my retort is: your concept of beauty is unforgivably shallow and skin-deep, so go back to your cave where you belong.)

In the end, the one who made the first best impression was the one to beat. Congratulations, Ralph.

[there are pictures from last saturday's pageant at hari ng negros' friendster site]

Labels: negros, pageants

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