Mrs. Worldwide Special Queen Ambassador Sarima Paglas and Lumina Golden Goddess Krisanta La Madrid. Images from Queen of Hearts Foundation/Facebook
MANILA, Philippines — Two candidates from the Philippines in the 2022 Mrs. Worldwide pageant expressed gratitude for the accolades they received in the competition staged at the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre in Singapore on Oct. 30.
Mrs. Philippines Krisanta La Madrid was proclaimed Lumina Golden Goddess, while Mrs. Southeast Asia Sarima Paglas was crowned Mrs. Worldwide Special Queen Ambassador. Another Filipino candidate, Mrs. Western Pacific Angel Tapia, received the Mrs. Inspiration award. All three were sent by the Queen of Hearts Foundation that mounts the annual Mrs. Queen of Hearts Philippines pageant.
“Alhamdullilah (thank God), I am very grateful and honored to come home with my new crown and sash” Paglas told the Inquirer in an online interview.
La Madrid said she was still overwhelmed with the recognition. “I am really not expecting anything, but God is truly amazing,” she told the Inquirer.
The two Filipino queens also shared messages for the delegate representing “Eurasia” who won the main title.
“Congratulations, sister. I had a chance to bond with her and I could feel how sincere and beautiful she is inside out,” Paglas said. For her part, La Madrid said, “to our newly-crowned Mrs. Worldwide, Mrs. Eurasia, you are amazing and keep being an advocate of goodness for everyone.”
The Mrs. Worldwide pageant took a break in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s most recent competition prior to the 2022 contest was held in 2019 where Filipino queen Llena Tan was proclaimed second runner-up.
Both La Madrid and Paglas were not supposed to compete in the Mrs. Worldwide pageant. When they participated in the Mrs. Queen of Hearts Philippines pageant in October 2020, they received titles that would send them to the Mrs. Asia Pacific contest instead, another competition mounted by the same organizer of their recent contest.
Paglas was proclaimed Mrs. Philippines Asia Pacific-Cosmopolitan, while La Madrid was hailed as Mrs. Philippines Asia Pacific-Tourism. But as fate would have it, the national pageant organization announced a reshuffling of titles in January 2021, awarding their original crowns to their fellow candidates whose previous titles did not come with international assignments, and subsequently assigning them to another competition with a wider scope.
The two ladies also weighed in on the significance of staging competitions for mothers and married women. “Through Mrs. pageants we are all able to share our advocacies and learn different lives of motherhood that could help one another,” Paglas said.
La Madrid, meanwhile, said, “pageantry allows women to be heard and provide an avenue for their advocacy to be known and reach more people.”
She added: “To all Filipinos, especially all the moms out there, motherhood is not an ending but a beginning. Dreams still come true, you just have to work hard for it.” EDV