Supsup hooray! Shamcey on float stops Makati traffic

BACK IN DILIMAN. Miss Universe third runner-up Shamcey Supsup receives a warm welcome from her alma mater University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, where she finished architecture and graduated magna cum laude in 2008. MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

From the school where her star first shone to the hub of big business, shrieking crowds welcomed her home. In another part of Metro Manila, veteran politicians and former actors instantly turned into adoring Shamcey fans.

Standing on a float that stopped the afternoon traffic along Ayala Avenue in Makati City on Monday, Miss Universe 2011 third runner-up Shamcey Supsup blew kiss after kiss to the crowd.

“Extremely happy,” Supsup said as she stepped off the float after the motorcade along Ayala and climbed into  a waiting car for another parade elsewhere in the metropolis.

It was the people’s way of thanking her for the honor she brought the country by finishing among the top five finalists in the Miss Universe beauty pageant in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Sept. 12.

A teacher’s memory

From the welcome she received in Makati City, Quezon City and elsewhere, one would have thought it was  Supsup who had romped off with the crown, and not Miss Angola, the winner.

At Makati High School in Barangay (village) Poblacion,   hundreds of students, teachers and workers jostled to get a good look of their now world famous  alumna.

As a student of Makati High, long before her beauty turned heads, Supsup was already drawing the attention of her teachers with her intellect and drive for excellence.

“Whatever we asked of her, she’d always say ‘yes,’” recalled her math teacher, Jovita Basco-Ugot, 45. “She excelled in all subjects and teachers wanted her to represent the school in competitions. Conflicts in her commitments, however, prevented her from doing everything.”

Humility remembered

Ugot said Supsup was very active in the student government and was also editor in chief of the school paper.

But she kept her feet on the ground  and her humility was something Ugot and fellow teacher Germelina Idanan have always treasured.

Idanan said the thought that a public school could produce a student like Supsup helped ease her concerns about the state of the country’s education system.

“The problems go away whenever we have a student like Shamcey. To say we are proud of her is an understatement,” Idanan said.

Model for public school

School principal Roberto Anir said Supsup was “a living testament” that the public education system in the country was working.

“For us educators, the measure of our success is our products,” Anir said.

“We’ve shown that the public school system of Makati  (can) produce someone like her,” Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay told the Inquirer. “She’s a model for our public school, that it is capable of producing students like her.”

The first thing Supsup inquired from Binay was whether the city government still provided for the needs of students, like free books and other school materials, the mayor said.

He said he told Supsup, who graduated salutatorian and later obtained an architecture degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Philippines, that nothing had changed.

Shower of confetti

Traffic along Ayala Avenue came to a halt as the float bearing Supsup drove along a 2-kilometer stretch. Camera-carrying office workers snapped photos of the 25-year-old stunner.

Some employees watched the parade from their office windows, showering her with confetti. Others lined the streets to get a glimpse of their newest beauty queen, who was obviously overwhelmed by the welcome.

Construction workers at building sites along Ayala laid down their tools to watch her go by.

One female motorist, visibly irritated, said she had been stuck in the traffic at a portion of Ayala near Rufino Street for half an hour.

‘I love your God’

An office worker wrote a message on a piece of paper for Supsup to see: “I love your God, Shamcey.”

It was a reference to the answer Supsup gave during the pageant’s question-and-answer portion when she was asked if she would give up her religion to marry the man she loved. She had answered no, adding that the man she loved must learn to love her God, too.

In a statement, the Makati City government  conferred on Supsup the “Gawad Lakan Tagkan,” the city’s highest award of merit. Its previous recipients included National Artists Leandro Locsin for architecture and Lucio San Pedro for music.

Autograph hunters

Earlier, a similarly adoring crowd welcomed Supsup at Quezon City Hall. There, Councilor Alfred Vargas outdid everyone else. The actor-turned-politician whipped out a marker and asked for her autograph—on the left breast of his white polo barong.

Vargas later jokingly said he would have the barong—now bearing the words “Thanks and God bless you!” encased in a frame.

The newbie councilor admitted he was accustomed to getting requests for autographs, but on Monday, he found himself on the other end.

“It was my first time to be star-struck … I am now a fan,” he said in an interview.

The statuesque Supsup also made a brief stop on the campus of the University of the Philippines during her motorcade.

Shrieking admirers

Wearing a lime green sundress, she flashed her winning smile and extended her hand to well-wishers, who either shrieked in admiration or were too dumbfounded to say anything.

Mayor Herbert Bautista and Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte led officials and employees in greeting the beauty queen during her courtesy call.

Bautista also asked Supsup to sign a copy of the Inquirer carrying news of her feat in Brazil.

The motorcade began from Gateway Mall at Araneta Center in Cubao at noon, making two stops at City Hall and UP Diliman before heading on to Cainta in Rizal province, where she resides.

At UP Quezon Hall, one student held a bouquet with the markings, “No to UP budget cut!” alluding to the state university’s fight for increased state subsidy.

Supsup paid a courtesy call on UP president Alfredo Pascual and other officials. A scuffle ensued when her bodyguards blocked the entry of media covering her.

Pascual welcomed the beauty queen’s decision to teach architecture at the state university.

“Given her popularity, people will believe her … In fact, she believes that tuition in UP should be free,” Pascual said.