Miss Philippines Earth to hold country’s first ‘new normal’ coronation night

MANILA, Philippines — Now that the "real" normal seems far-fetched, online is the way to go. One of the latest to join the bandwagon in the Philippines is beauty pageants. 

Miss Philippines-Earth recently launched its nationwide search for the girl who will push for the protection of Mother Nature online. In doing so, it became the first local beauty pageant to ride the online bandwagon.

It was a leap of faith for the organizers, Carousel Productions, Inc, whose founder and executive vice-president Lorraine Schuck, admits that while the Miss Earth show is doable, it isn’t easy to pull off.

First of all, the concept has never been tried, at least in the Philippines. Pre-pageant events like the Cultural Attire competition were shown virtually, via the pageant’s Facebook page. 

Existing sponsors, the TV station, even the candidates (the numbers dwindled from 40 last year to 33 this year) had to warm up to the idea of a pageant that held virtual presentations instead of live events.  

Resistance to change is normal, even expected. And many adopted a wait-and-see attitude to the online pageant.

In a Philstar.com interview, Schuck admitted that the traditional pageant was easier to mount financially because everyone knows how it goes. 

The girls themselves had to do a lot of adjustments. They had to get used to doing things on their own. They had to apply their own makeup, make sure their Internet connection is working and send  required videos from their phone or camera.

Naturally, those with poor Internet connections had second thoughts about joining the pageant. Others, who wanted pageantry – also demurred.

Carousel addressed the latter concern by telling the girls, “Miss Philippines Earth is not just a pageant but also an environmental event.”

These challenges, however, did not faze Carousel, which has set the coronation night for Sunday, July 5, to be aired on GMA 7, 10 a.m. to noon (the international version is tentatively set first week of November).

Miss Philippines-Earth 2019 Janelle Tee will relinquish her crown, not by lifting the symbol of victory from her head and transferring it to her successor.  

The turnover rites will be virtual, with the outgoing and the incoming queens seeing each other on different video screens, not face-to-face. 

Will this be the face of Miss Philippines-Earth from now on?

But unlike other sectors that hope to stick to the new normal in years to come, Schuck hopes the pageant returns to its traditional format someday, when it’s safe for people to gather around any venue and watch the beauties parade and show their talents right before our eyes.

After all, as Shuck explained, this traditional way of presenting beauty pageants is still the accepted one. 

As in everything else in this pandemic however, only time will tell. Schuck and company have to wait, see and cross their fingers that things will be back to how they used to be.

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