Beauty contestant declares 2004 presidential bid

One of the 36 beauty contestants vying for this year’s Bb. Pilipinas title is aspiring to be the country’s next woman president.

The beauty pageant, it seems, will be her ticket to the highest office in the land. In that case, she will diverge from the well-beaten path most beauty contestants take, as she is setting her sights this early not on show business or the ramp but at Malacañang.

"I want to be the next woman president in the country," Diana Sadie, a contestant from Polangui, Albay told reporters during the weekly Balitaan sa Rembrant Hotel forum in Quezon City.

She said, however, that her presidential bid would not be in the 2004 elections but in later years.

The presidency, she added, was her childhood dream and she intends to pursue it even if she does not clinch the Bb. Pilipinas title.

Sadie and 10 other candidates who were guests of the weekly forum believed that women make good leaders.

Other candidates also present during the forum were: Maria Del Carmen Antigua, Katrina Ashby, Aloha Crisostomo, Jhezarie Javier, Carolyn Ramos, Sanya Smitt, Angelina Corstorphan, Carla Gay Balingit and Gladyz Cruz.

Practically all the candidates supported Sadie’s bid to become president saying that women must now take active roles in politics and other fields dominated by men. They cited the role played by former President Corazon Aquino and now President Arroyo in nation building.

Javier, a hotel management graduate, described Aquino and Arroyo as the epitome of womanhood today — very concerned, active and socially conscious.

"We see ourselves as no longer the fickle minded individuals in the past. We want to be recognized for what we are doing and what we intend to do in the future," she said.

The candidates also declared their strong opposition to the impending US invasion of Iraq saying that war is not the answer to the woes of the world.

And if given the chance and proper security and training they are willing to become as emissaries of peace even to the Abu Sayyaf bandits in Mindanao.