What!?! Another wardrobe malfunction?

Last year’s Miss Bikini Philippines competition yielded such promising hopefuls that some of the contestants were again drafted to enter other beauty pageants this 2010.

Ella Castillo, an Alma Concepcion look-alike, who was a finalist in the 2009 Miss Bikini contest, tried her luck in the recent Binibining Pilipinas (the one with the controversial Venus Raj) and ended up in the Top 10 — not bad since Stella Marquez had a good harvest of candidates this year and the competition was tougher than usual.

In the Miss Earth Philippines pageant scheduled tonight, the winner of last year’s Miss Bikini Philippines-International, Kimberly Brandon, is said to be among the favorites to win the crown (another one in her growing collection of beauty titles).

When she returns to relinquish her duties as Miss Bikini Philippines on May 1 at the Aliw Theater, I’m sure she will heave a sigh of relief because she doesn’t have to compete on that stage. The arena this time will have shapelier bodies and more beautiful faces compared to last year and even in 2008 when this Slimmers World International-sponsored pageant began (no offense meant to previous batches).

This year’s candidates — 24 in all — were introduced to the press last Wednesday evening in a pre-pageant presentation held at the theater of the RCBC Plaza. (The winner on coronation night will be sent to the Miss Bikini International contest to be held later this year either in China or Vietnam.)

Looking at the contestants parading in their two-piece swimsuits, you notice that there are some who resemble movie stars. One looks like Glaiza de Castro, but slightly taller.

Why, there’s even a Pinay version of Debbie Reynolds, but who in this generation knows her? Okay, she’s the mother of Carrie Fisher. I hope the name already sounds familiar to today’s youth.

Oh, and how can I forget the Angelica Jones dead-ringer? There’s nothing wrong with that. Angelica is very pretty and sexy — and so is this Miss Bikini Philippines contestant. But I didn’t say that this bet sounded like the controversial entertainment personality, who once declared on television (in my old show in ABS-CBN) that: “I am not a GR.”

Most of the Miss Bikini Philippines candidates this year actually speak well (which speaks well of what’s in their head). During the introduction and even in the interview portion, there were no fumbles that all of us love to see in beauty pageants.

Some of the girls even traded jokes with the hosts for that evening, disc jockeys Sheryll Crystal and Christian “Slyde” Ardiente.

The proceedings went very well (I had fun, especially since I had a reunion that night with Nelson Canlas, who was once head writer for Startalk) and the evening concluded without a glitch — save for one incident: Another wardrobe malfunction.

In the talent portion, a delicate area of the participant’s upper body partly slid out of her top while doing her dance number. To the organizers’ relief, she was wearing what wardrobe experts now call “niplets.” It turned out that Slimmers World International vice president Helen Camacho had a sixth sense that this may happen and instructed all the contestants to put on these safety devices. Such wisdom.

If ever anything comes out on the Internet, I have to say this early that this picture was photo-shopped because we were there as witnesses — and we were in the front row. The contestant had that “covering” when that happened. Whew!

Ms. Camacho surely must have heard about the Anne Curtis incident — and poor Anne, she suffered from the meanness of some people who posted that picture on the Internet without thinking that they, too, have females among their family members.

Fortunately, something positive could still come out of the worst scenario in life: Anne’s experience served as lesson to a lot of young women today — they now all wear protection. And they have to thank Anne Curtis for this.

Don’t worry, Anne. We all know it was an accident and in spite of what happened we will always look at you with utmost respect.