IT’S MAYTIME and it’s the season of beauty contests and reminiscences of pageantries of pulchritude.
These are just two of the objectives that beauty titlists, especially batches of the past Binibining Pilipinas searches, define and carry out in seeing each other regularly.
Although she was the 1975 Mutya ng Pilipinas Miss Photogenic, Azenith Briones was one of the Binibining Pilipinas hopefuls after her reign with the former Biboy Enriquez beauty search franchise which is owned by Frederick Yuson now.
Even if she didn’t make it to the finals of the Stella Marquez Araneta pageant, Azenith was one of the convenors of the latest reunion of Bb. Pilipinas titleholders in the 70s.
Briones was proud to gather her contemporaries for a special luncheon party at People’s Palace in Makati City.
“This is just a simple gathering of friends from the past Binibining Pilipinas contestants and winners.
“Through the years, we have become closer and more mature in dealing with our experiences in the past including our personal stories about our joining beauty pageants,” explained Zenith.
The event was also a welcome party for Melanie Marquez who has just arrived from Utah in the US.
“I miss the Philippines a lot,” said Melanie. 1979 Binibining Pilipinas-International who won Miss International held in Japan in the same year.
According to Marquez, she returned home a few days ago.
“Wala pang alok sa pelikula at TV. Kadarating ko lang kasi. Tingnan natin (No movie and TV offers yet. It’s because I’ve just arrived. Let’s see),” said Melanie.
The first media work she has to do is judging a beauty contest in Palawan anytime now.
Meanwhile, 1975 Miss Young Philippines Jean Saburit was also around.
“We just came from a renewal of our driver’s licenses in Pasay City,” informed Jean who was with Hong Kong-based friend, businesswoman and model Tess Schoefer.
“Katatapos lang ng screening ng mga TV series ko (My television series were just screened recently),” said Saburit.
Juan Nakpil’s descendant, 1976 Miss Maja Philippines Cynthia Nakpil, was casual in her appearance and social interaction.
I told her people are proud of her being a descendant as well of Julio Nakpil and Gregoria de Jesus, also known as Ka Oryang, the widow of the Great Plebeian and Father of the Philippine Revolution Andres Bonifacio.
I asked Cynthia her reminiscences on beauty contests.
“No, we don’t reminisce anymore. We just live by the day,” she quipped.
Sitting to the right of Cynthia was 1976 Miss Young Philippines Marilou Fernandez.
“Ako ang nagpasa ng korona at scepter kay Malou sa (I was the one who bequeathed the crown and scepter to Malou at the) 1976 Binibining Pilipinas grand coronation night,” recalled Saburit.
Also present during the get-together were fashion model Reggie Prada with her best friend Edgar and Binibining Pilipinas aspirant Maria Corazon Esguerra Lozada.
Despite the passing of years, elegance, elan and grace are still evident in these muses of pulchritude.