Binibining Pilipinas: Beauty Ever After. Image: INQUIRER.net/Armin P. Adina
The Binibining Pilipinas pageant is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, and the longest-running national pageant in the country is chronicling its six decades through a coffee-table book titled “Beauty Ever After.”
The monumental project was already teased to avid followers during the celebration of the 60th coronation night last month, and pageant afficionados have been eagerly waiting for the book to come out. The Binibining Pilipinas Charities Inc. (BPCI) finally launched it on Thursday, Aug. 15, in Quezon City.
A small reunion of the pageant’s queens throughout the decades witnessed the unveiling of the book, a collection of interviews with dozens of the most iconic titleholders from the Philippines, international winners and runners-up, and some surprise Bb. Pilipinas alumnae many would have never thought came from the national pageant.
Bb. Pilipinas queens gather for the launching of the 60th anniversary coffee-table book. Image: INQUIRER.net/Armin P. Adina
Among those who graced the occasion with her presence was Miss International 1979 Melanie Marquez, who told INQUIRER.net that she was so excited when she learned there would be a book that got her to go in front of the camera lens once again after her retirement from modeling.
“It’s been a long time. So yeah, I’m just grateful that I’m part of the book. They just called me up. Basta naman nandito ako (as long as I am here). I will always participate,” she shared, adding that she hopes the book’s readers will learn the value of the honor that they, the Bb. Pilipinas queens, have given the country.
Actress Ariella Arida, 2013 Miss Universe third runner-up who bagged her national crown at the 50th edition of Bb. Pilipinas, said she was already expecting that something big would be up for the pageant’s 60th anniversary. “It’s so nice they have this book,” she told INQUIRER.net.
She noted how “nostalgic” it was for her to return to Araneta City for the book a decade after her coronation as Bb. Pilipinas. “So many things have changed here. But once I got inside Araneta Coliseum, all the memories came back. The feeling is still there, of how I started,” she shared.
Arida hopes people will learn from her story that they can achieve their dreams, whatever they may be. “I’ve never seen myself being where I am right now. Especially Bb Pilipinas, I saw it, like, it’s super prestigious and hard-to-reach, especially coming from the province. And then it happened, I won. It’s a testament that wherever you come from, even if you do not know anyone in the industry, just follow your dreams. Bb. Pilipinas made that happen for me,” she said.
For actress Dindi Gallardo, Bb. Pilipinas Universe 1993, the book gave her the opportunity to have a more indelible participation in the national pageant’s diamond anniversary celebration. “I thought [the book] would have happened for the 50th. I wasn’t here, I was in New York. [For the] 60th I was traveling, but I flew in that day [of the shoot]. It was so nice to be part of the 60th. I couldn’t show up on coronation night. But the book is forever,” she said.
“I was not a believer in pageants before, because I was a reluctant beauty queen. I actually joined on a dare. I understand now the reasons why people join. Some things never change, but what I am happy with was hearing about the advocacies of the women and how they use that as a platform to raise awareness on issues. So I hope they continue that. Because for me, that is something really so beautiful,” Gallardo said of BPCI.
BPCI tapped veteran journalist Alya Honasan to author the book, and working on the project showed her what has been consistent about the Bb. Pilipinas queens. “Most of the time the girls, they have something to say. And what’s beautiful about the ones now, they choose a cause. They will choose a cause and they’ll stick to it,” she said.
She also hopes that the readers, after going over the book, will be proud of BPCI and the queens it has produced. “We have this really fabulous institution, a contest. And then they’re still coming up. And there’s a history. And all of them, the women, are really international class,” Honasan said.
“We should keep going. The women are evolving. They’re different, but they’re still beautiful for their time. Go on, adjust with the times, but maintain the standards,” she continued.
“Binibining Pilipinas: Beauty Ever After” is now available for order online through Ticketnet. Pageant head Gines Enriquez announced during the launch that the book would be delivered “door-to-door” to those who will be purchasing them.
BPCI staged the first Bb. Pilipinas pageant in July 1964, when the late Myrna Panlilio was crowned. Since then, the organization has produced the most iconic Filipino beauty queens including Miss Universe winners Gloria Diaz, Margie Moran, Pia Wurtzbach and Catriona Gray, and Miss International titleholders Aurora Pijuan, Marquez, Precious Lara Quigaman, Bea Rose Santiago and Kylie Verzosa.