Kris Tiffany Janson (front) with the Hiyas ng Pilipinas delegates. Image: Armin P. Adina/INQUIRER.net
Cebuana beauty queen Kris Tiffany Janson said pageantry in the country has become more competitive, nine years since winning her national crown and finishing third in the 2014 Miss Intercontinental pageant.
Janson, the first Binibining Pilipinas queen to be sent to the Miss Intercontinental pageant, observed these changes at the Hiyas ng Pilipinas pageant taking place in the province of Cebu. She hosted the national search’s preliminary competition held at the Toledo City Sports Center (Megadome) on Nov. 8.
“In every year it’s more competitive in more ways than one. During our time, I guess, it was also competitive but in a different way. But now, the women make sure they are fully equipped with everything already,” she told INQUIRER.net in an interview.
Janson said she observed that pageant contestants these days have to have stories to tell, and conduct their own research to better showcase the cities, towns, or provinces that they are representing. “It’s really one of the bases of their strength,” she said.
“And the national costume really tells a story about their beautiful provinces, and it tells the beautiful culture and heritage of the places they carry. It’s not just the usual Filipiniana. But now it’s like a storybook that they carry onstage,” she continued.
The Hiyas ng Pilipinas delegates paraded elaborate costumes during the preliminary competition, with large props, and some even with huge set pieces over 10 feet tall. There were costumes with lights, mechanical parts, and wheels.
The search is the first national pageant to be based in Cebu. And for Janson, this eases the pressure on the ladies by not requiring them to travel to Manila. “It also gives the chance for other places in the Philippines to showcase and feature the beautiful sceneries and historical places, Cebu for this matter,” she explained.
Miss Intercontinental 2014 second runner-up Kris Tiffany Janson. Image: Armin P. Adina/INQUIRER.net
Pageantry nowadays, Janson noted, “have instilled that an empowered woman is not only beautiful, is not only someone we look up to, is not only an image, but is a whole personality. It’s really a character who not only can talk, but talk for us. A beauty queen now is an embodiment of not just who she is as a person, but the organization as well.”
The 2023 Hiyas ng Pilipinas pageant will crown the Philippines’ representatives to the 2023 Miss Tourism World, 2023 Miss Omninational and 2024 Miss Continental World pageants. The winners will be proclaimed at the grand coronation night to be held at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino on Nov. 11.