Canada’s Mutya ng Pilipinas 2024 bet sees vitiligo as advantage in quest for crown

Mutya ng Pilipinas-Canada 2024 Arianna Pantaleon. Image: INQUIRER.net/Armin P. Adina

The ever-evolving world of pageantry has seen shifts in beauty standards, even promoting new ones, so that the spectrum of what is deemed “beautiful” has encompassed a diverse array of appearances. This movement toward inclusivity has driven Arianna Pantaleon, Mutya ng Pilipinas-Canada 2024, to gain even more confidence in having vitiligo.

It is a condition that causes patches of skin to lose pigment or color, the same one that the late pop king Michael Jackson was believed to have had. Another famous personality known to also have it is “America’s Next Top Model” Cycle 21 alumna Winnie Harlow, who also comes from Toronto, Canada, like Pantaleon.

“I definitely think that we go through very similar struggles, especially both of us having vitiligo. And I think that’s one of the advantages that we can use towards our journeys, is to show people that, first, to let people know that it’s okay to feel comfortable in your own skin, and that it makes you 10 times more confident,” Pantaleon told INQUIRER.net when she met a group of journalists and online content creators at a hotel in Taguig City on Friday, Aug. 16.

But the confidence did not immediately come to her, even after winning the Mutya ng Pilipinas-Canada crown in 2022. She was supposed to be half of the duo to represent the Filipino community in Canada at the 51st edition of the national pageant held that year. No competition was held in 2023 and that is why she is staging her Philippine pageant debut this year at the 52nd edition of Mutya ng Pilipinas.

“I just didn’t think it was the right time for me. And I wanted to make sure, going into Mutya ng Pilipinas, that I was fully prepared. And that this opportunity I would grab every single bit of it. So that’s why I decided that now is the right time, rather than last year, or any other year before,” Pantaleon declared.

For her quest for a Mutya ng Pilipinas crown, she knocked on the doors of management agency ProMedia, which molded reigning queen Iona Gibbs as well as the two recent Miss World Philippines winners Gwendolyne Fourniol and Krishnah Gravidez, and reigning Miss Earth-Air Yllana Marie Aduana.

The Toronto-based delegate clarified, though, that she is full-blooded Filipino. She may have been born and raised in Canada, but both of her parents are Filipinos. She shared with INQUIRER.net that her mother comes from Tondo in Manila, while her father is a proud son of Caloocan City.

Pantaleon revealed, though, that pageants are only big among Filipinos in Canada, and the nation as a whole does not celebrate it as much as Filipinos do. INQUIRER.net asked her how she can get Canadians on board the pageantry wagon, and she said: “My love for pageantry is so strong, that me representing an overseas community, especially like Canada, I can take all of that pride and all of that love of the Filipinos to Canada, and to show them that pageantry is a beautiful thing. And it’s not just pageantry and glitz and glamor, and getting makeup, but it’s all about the advocacy, and advocacy work, and everything you put into it, changing and becoming a whole new person.”

She also said that she would want to take advantage of the Mutya ng Pilipinas platform to gain support for her fight against domestic violence. “I watched one of my family members go through an abusive relationship. It’s one thing to watch someone go through it, but it’s another thing to watch a family member go through it. I was young at the time, and I didn’t realize what was happening until this family member started getting pulled away from me, and I realized that I really was losing this family member,” she shared.

“To watch that with my own eyes has honestly been such an eye opener, and that’s one of the reasons as to why I’m so passionate about my advocacy, and why I continue wanting to work with it. I was in an organization back home in Canada where they sheltered women and children who were abused, and it’s through seeing that, it’s just through seeing them being sheltered, where I wanted to be able to be that sense of help for them, and I wanted them to gain their confidence back within their bodies,” Pantaleon said.

“I think Mutya [ng Pilipinas] is what it is for a reason, and that’s why I joined in the first place, because I strongly believe in this organization, so I wouldn’t change it any other way, more so add towards it, and ensuring that it provides me with an opportunity, just as much as I provide them with an opportunity,” she continued.

The Mutya ng Pilipinas pageant is staging its 56th anniversary edition this year, after skipping 2023. The most recent competition was held in 2022, the 51st edition, which was mounted after a two-year pandemic pause.

Mutya ng Pilipinas President Cory Quirino told INQUIRER.net that this year’s contest will choose the Philippines’ representatives to the 2024 editions of the Miss Intercontinental and Miss Tourism International pageants, and the World Top Model contest. The Mutya ng Pilipinas-Overseas Communities is also still up for grabs.

The final screening of applicants will be held on Aug. 18 at the Fairmont Manila Hotel in Makati City, at 1 p.m. Interested ladies may visit the national pageant’s social media pages for details on how to apply.