Janina San Miguel airs side on early pageant exit
Janina San Miguel-Sahota/ARMIN P. ADINA
MANILA, Philippines — Former Binibining Pilipinas World Janina San Miguel-Sahota surprised the local pageant scene when she screened for a new pageant for married women and mothers 15 years after capturing a national title in her “first pageant ever.” But her pageant comeback abruptly ended when news came out that she will no longer continue her journey to a new crown just days after she was introduced as an official candidate of the first-ever Mrs. Face of Tourism Philippines contest.
“Nag-back out na po ako (I already backed out),” San Miguel confirmed with the Inquirer in a text message on March 11. Organizers gave her until the weekend to reconsider her decision, but the beauty queen firmly stood by her decision.
The organization presented San Miguel, along with 15 other aspirants, including former daring actresses Sabrina M and Alma Soriano, on March 4. On March 7, the pageant posted on its social media account that she will no longer join the competition. That post has already been taken down as of this writing.
Insiders shared with the Inquirer that San Miguel had an argument with the pageant’s director, Marky delos Santos. The beauty queen confirmed this.
“Unprofessional mga director nila, nagpo-post ng kung ano-ano sa [chat group] namin like Red Horse, tapos kami pa ang may mali kapag ’di namin nakita mga update sa [group] dahil sa mga unrelated topics na pino-post niya. Kaya ako nag-leave sa [group] (the directors are unprofessional, they post irrelevant messages to our chat group, and then will blame us if we failed to see their updates because of the unrelated topics they keep flooding the chat group. That’s why I left the group),” she explained.
“Tapos pinost nila sa page nila na tanggal na ako without my manager’s consent, samantalang ’yong ibang candidates na nag-backout hindi naman nila pinost (and then they posted on their page that they had already removed me without my manager’s consent, but they did not even bother posting about the other candidates who backed out),” San Miguel continued.
The former beauty queen said she has been singled out because she was the only one who had been speaking out about questionable circumstances in the pageant. “Ayokong nakakarinig na may unfair na nangyayari kaya kino-call out ko (I do not want to hear about anything unfair happening, that is why I call them out),” she said.
The pageant’s organizer, Annie Refrea, confirmed with the Inquirer that another candidate withdrew from the competition, a woman from Davao. A quick review of the contest’s page did not show any post announcing a Davaoeña’s withdrawal from the competition. Also, 20 women were listed to take part in the March 4 presentation of candidates, as seen on the production staff’s records. But only 16 showed up, with one of the four missing ladies from Davao.
San Miguel said she never had any plans of staging a pageant comeback, after she gained infamy with her amusing response to the question-and-answer round of the 2008 Bb. Pilipinas pageant. “Kaya lang naman kami sumali ni Sabrina sa contest kasi in-invite kaming sumali to support the very first ‘Mrs. pageant’ of [National Association of Independent Travel Agencies] (the reason why Sabrina and I joined the contest was because we were invited to participate to support the very first ‘Mrs. pageant’ of NAITAS),” she explained, referring to former actress Sabrina M, whose real name is Karen Palasigui.
The two personalities’ participation in the pageant were handled by Pia Borromeo, who is a member of the NAITAS board of trustees along with Refrea. San Miguel said the manager will continue to manage the former actress in her bid for the crown.
San Miguel also shared that Sabrina thought of leaving the competition too. “Sabi niya, ‘Sis nag-Binibini ka, ako nag-Mutya. Hindi ganito, ’di ba, na ikaw ang magbabayad ng hotel at make-up artist, may entry fee pa?’ (She said, ‘sis you joined Binibini, I did Mutya, it was not like this, was it, that we pay for our hotel, make-up artist, and there is an entry fee?’),” she shared.
The former beauty queen also confirmed that the former actress will proceed. “Mukhang happy naman na si Sabrina now, ’di na magba-backout. Nag-courtesy call na sa governor ng Bulacan, nabigyan na siya ng pera (it seems Sabrina is happy now. She paid a courtesy call on the governor of Bulacan, she received money),” San Miguel said.
“Move na ako diyan. Sa totoo lang, Christian din ako at upcoming pastor kaya ayoko na sanang sumali pa ng pageants (I have already moved on from this. In fact, I’m also a Christian who will become a pastor soon, so I really do not want to join pageants),” San Miguel continued. EDV
