Miss Earth sees Luzon quake as wake-up call

The earthquake that shook Luzon early Tuesday should be a wake-up call for people to be more responsible and care for the environment, said 2010 Miss Earth Nicole Faria from India.

Faria arrived in Manila on Monday and felt the tremor in her hotel room at Ortigas Center. She told the Inquirer she noticed her bed shaking and asked her fellow titleholders, Miss Water Watsaporn Wattanakoon from Thailand and Miss Air Victoria Shchukina from Russia, if they had also felt it.

“I got scared at first, but I was relieved to know I wasn’t going insane when they confirmed feeling it too,” Faria said at a press conference at Discovery Suites in Pasig City on Tuesday.

The 5.9-magnitude quake was recorded at 1:15 a.m. Tuesday 30 kilometers under the sea about 35 km off Iba, Zambales.

“This is an alarm for us to wake up,” Faria, 21, said. “Global warming is real, it is all our doing. I believe in karma: What we give the world, the world gives back to us.”

The three young women are in the country to lead a series of environmental activities, in line with Miss Earth’s advocacy. Among the events is an Inquirer Read-Along on July 30 where they will read stories to schoolchildren at the newspaper’s offices in Makati City.

Faria, Wattanakoon and Shchukina will also join SM Supermarket’s “Plastics Free” campaign to help reduce nonbiodegradable garbage. The three will visit Tayuman Elementary School in Rizal for the Miss Earth Foundation’s “I Love My Planet Earth” tour.

They will participate in a clean-up drive and tree-planting activity at the Las Piñas-Parañaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area. Two fashion shows are slated featuring them and titleholders from Miss Philippines-Earth at Robot in Makati City and Discovery Suites in Ortigas.

They will also take part in De La Salle University’s environment stewardship forum on Aug. 4.

Lorraine Schuck, Carousel executive vice president, expressed optimism about this year’s competition in Pattaya, Thailand, on Nov. 12.

“We have received a lot of favorable feedback from different countries,” Schuck said in a statement.