One of the hottest YouTube videos this week is that of Binibining Pilipinas World 2008 winner Janina San Miguel’s answer during the Q&A portion of the pageant, where she must have made all her English and grammar teachers, past and present, red with embarrassment as they were watching her attempt to answer the simple question:

“What role did your family play with you as candidate to Binibining Pilipinas?”

Janina’s  answer justified why beauty pageant contestants continue to be the butt of jokes whenever the Q&A portion of the contest is involved.  Her mistake was in trying to answer the question in English, where she miserably failed.  I cannot describe just how funny, frustrating, or disappointing it was to see her fumble and bumble her way through answering the question.  Janina butchered the English language every way possible, in spite of the fact that if you listen really hard, you can hear the host Paolo Bediones telling her off mike that it was okay to answer in Tagalog.

But contestant No.  15, who had already won the swimsuit and long gown competitions, and whose confidence was rapidly crumbling, decided to stick to her guns and answer the question in English.  Either the massive pressure of being in the ‘Tough Ten’ must have compromised her decision making or she must have been wrongly taught by her handlers that answering in English, no matter how carabao, will get her pogi points with the judges.  Anyway, after much ado, roars of amusement from the live audience, and a wide range of reactions from the judges, from outright laughter to petrified looks of horrified incredulity, Janina San Miguel ended her discourse with “my family is the most important persons in my life, thank you.”

After Janina’s performance, you can’t blame people for picking on beauty queens and the question and answer part of the program.  I guess if all the contestants were able to answer the questions flawlessly, the suspense and anticipation of seeing how a contestant looks like once she opens her mouth would be gone and beauty pageants might lose a big chunk of their audience.  After all, if we watch these kind of contests for the pretty faces, the swimsuits, the evening gowns, or the Q&A portion.  

Anyway, in spite of that major booboo, Janina San Miguel still won the title of Binibining Pilipinas World 2008.  Having seen only the YouTube clips of Janina, I do not know if the competition was that thin or maybe she did deserve to win, with her looks and poise making up for the Q&A debacle.  Maybe the judges decided that it was easier to make a pretty girl smart than to make a smart girl pretty.  If Janina won the swimsuit and evening gown competitions, which are basically 2/4 of the whole contest, it leaves only the talent and Q&A part of her improvement, which may be easer to achieve in the 6 months between now and the Miss World pageant.  By then17-year-old Janina would have undergone intensive training, learned her lessons, as well as new tricks and may even impress this beauty queen crazy nation by actually bringing home the bacon and becoming and instant celebrity, which in this country means she will become showbiz royalty, and even enter politics. 

I Thank You.

For the YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKwmseoKFCo&feature=related