Will Binibini bet Rica Balagtas win the ‘Globe’? - FUNFARE

The 2001 Miss Universe Pageant will be held next month in Puerto Rico and beauty connoisseurs predict that our bet, UP Law student Zorayda Ruth Andam, stands "a good chance" and is being compared to Miriam Quiambao who, before she placed first runner-up in the 1999 Miss U held in Trinidad-Tobago, hardly made local heads turn.

But before the Miss U comes the new international beauty pageant (keep counting, keep counting!) which will be held on April 9 in Istanbul, Turkey (where Ruffa Gutierrez’s very wealthy and very macho boyfriend comes from). Representing the country is Maricar "Rica" Manalaysay Balagtas, who was second runner-up in this year’s Bb. Pilipinas search. Will Rica win the Globe?

Let’s wait and see.

For a backgrounder on Rica, here are Funfare’s "beauty experts" Joey Cezeare, Gery Yumping, Francis Calubaquib and Felix Manuel (now based in London):

Tall and lovely, 18-year-old Rica, who was also the Best in Swimsuit winner, left last March 30 (Friday) via Singapore Airlines for Istanbul.

Rica, a Mass Communication freshman at Centro Escolar University (Bulacan), is a part-time fashion model 5’81/2" tall and measuring 34"-23"-35". She’s the second child in a brood of four children (two girls and two boys) of Josefino Balagtas (businessman) and the former Lilia Manalaysay.

Born in Plaridel, Bulacan, Rica is a consistent beauty contest winner and a potential showbiz material. She is the current Miss Bulacan and will crown her successor on April 23. She underwent rigorous training for barely a week for the Miss Globe beauty pageant.

Organized by the Festival of Beauty Inc., Miss Globe is one of the most prestigious beauty contests in Europe which expanded only recently to include participation from Asia.

Rica’s selection was made by the executive committee of the Bb. Pilipinas Charities Inc. (BPCI).

BPCI has fielded three national beauties for pageants abroad in a space of four months. Rachel Soriano was chosen Best in Long Gown and runner-up in last’s year Miss Tourism World in Malta; while Bb. Pilipinas-International 2000 Joanna Mijares Peñaloza was chosen Miss Internet Face of the Year in the recent Miss Internet WWW pageant, also in Turkey.

Past Philippine bets to Miss Globe include Angela Yuriko Figueras (1989), Carla Blanco Perez (1990), Shawnaleh Arevalo (1991) and Carol Quino (1993).

A lesson in grammar

Meanwhile, here’s Funfare’s little lesson in grammar from loyal reader Ramon Alfonso A. Fuentes ("A Concerned Senior Citizen"):

Greetings!

Depending on your emotional equilibrium at the time you read this, you’d either explode into uncontrolled laughter or cry a deluge. You see, I chanced upon a sequence in GMA-7’s program Click last March 17 wherein the characters kept repeating a clumsily coined word, "monthsary."

Evidently, the program’s writer attempted to coin a term to convey the sense of an event that recurred after a month or several months. Unfortunately, the writer’s attempt at neology has no logical basis, although you and I know it is less atrocious than "month anniversary," a malalocution that many ill-informed entertainment writers have been using.

In the spirit of helpfulness, perhaps it might be relevant to explain why the queer-sounding word, "monthsary" is inappropriate:

1. The subject coinage obviously consists of two components:

a. "Month" — an English word derived from the Anglo-Saxon term, "monath," often shortened into "mona."

b. "Sary" — clearly lifted from the bound or combining morpheme, "versary" in the word "anniversary."

2. Unfortunately, "sary" cannot function as a bound or combining morpheme because it has no root at all. "Versary," on the other hand, is a bound or combining morpheme that is derived from the Latin term "versus," the past participle of "vertere," meaning "to turn." A morpheme is indivisible.

3. An inviolable rule in neology is never to couple a base or free morpheme ending in an aspirated sound (th) onto a multi-syllabic bound or combining morpheme that begins with an affricated, sibilant sound (s) because the resulting coinage would be hopelessly phonetically dissonant.

4. Therefore, to combine "month" and "sary" is totally without logic.

The question, therefore, is how does one convey the sense of an event that recurs after one or several months?

The appropriate term is "lunaversary." If your readers – particularly the entertainment writers – are interested to know the etymology of "lunaversary," I advise them to dig up your column in The STAR issue of Nov. 24, 2000.

It appears that your task and mine is never-ending.

Another comedian joins politics

If Tito Sotto could become a Senator, why can’t every comedian in movie town follow in his footsteps (no matter how "murky" sometimes)?

In Parañaque City, there’s a comedian-councilor in the person of Anjo Yllana, and so are there in Caloocan City (Dennis Padilla), in Manila (Lou Veloso and Larrie Silva) and everywhere else.

Can Quezon City be far behind?

Running for councilor in QC’s fourth district is Arnell Ignacio with the "battlecry" Vision and Mission.

Arnell’s vision is to be a true public servant, a councilor who will make significant contributions to the development of his district. His mission is to help community members realize their full potential and be proactive in solving their problems.

Arnell’s first concern is that most members of District 4’s poor communities do not have a regular source of income. Although the current and past administrations have exerted efforts for big companies to provide more jobs, the effects of these efforts have not been felt by these communities. Job opportunities which require their skills are few and far between and often do not offer continuous employment.

His second concern is that the poor communities of District 4 do not have access to adequate health care. Arnell’s objective is to enable existing health centers to be fully functioning, at the minimum to be equipped with the most basic facilities like running water, electricity, an examination table, beds and chairs.

Living conditions in these poor communities continue to deteriorate due to improper waste management. This problem is not only confined to the poor communities but also extends to the more well-off communities that surround them. Hence, Arnell plans to push for the strict enforcement of segregation, i.e., biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste must be put into separate waste containers. Community leaders will be tasked to impose a strict rule that families that do not practice segregation will not have their waste collected.

Arnaldo Arevalo Ignacio was born on March 17, 1964 to Edgardo Ignacio and Lourdes Arevalo. He is the eldest in a brood of four that includes sisters Gina and Carol and brother Mark. He is husband to Frannie, father to Sofia Bernardine (4) and stepfather to Lynda Corazon (15) and Angela Beatriz (13).

He finished his elementary and secondary education in Notre Dame School in Caloocan where he graduated with honors in 1981. One of his batch’s main movers, he took most of the photographs found in their yearbook and even composed their graduation song. Arnell went to UP Diliman for his college education where he spent a year in Architecture before shifting to Music (major in composition). Arnell was an active member of the UP Madrigals while in college.

After college, Arnell became a music instructor at UE and was instrumental in the creation of the UE Nocturne Choir. He was also choir conductor for the San Miguel Corporation Chorale and Heart Center Chorale.