The 2011 Binibining Pilipinas as told on Twitter

I was invited to the Binibing Pilipinas pageant night last Sunday, April 10, at the Araneta Colliseum. Unfortunately, I was too lazy to go to Araneta and instead watch the delayed telecast of the contest on ABS-CBN.

While watching events live is often thought to be the better option, the previous pageant night of the Binibining Pilipinas just proved that notion wrong. While thousands of people are in Araneta, hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of people were watching with me through their TV sets and a handful of them are, yes, “tweeting” at the same time.

Tweeting, or the act of posting updates via the social networking site Twitter, had been the latest craze in the country for quite some time now. And certainly, tweeting adds excitement to a rather boring regular TV-watching evening. Through Twitter, it seems like you were watching the same program with thousands of other people.

Last Sunday, thousands of people watched the delayed telecast of the Binibining Pilipinas pageant on ABS-CBN. But they did not just watch; they tweeted, real-time. But more than praises and accolades, Pinoys on Twitter tweeted boo-boo’s that happened during the pageant.

The winners of 2011 Binibining Pilipinas (photo courtesy of BPCI)

When newly crowned Binibining Pilipinas-Universe Shamcey Supsup won her first special award, “tweeps” (or people on Twitter) made fun of her rather unusual surname. But more than making fun of her surname, it was also via Twitter where we learned that Shamcey Supsup was in fact a UP magna cum laude and architecture board topnotcher.

Aside from funny names, tweeps discussed the pronunciation lapses of the beauty contestants. Perhaps the one who received the most criticism on her pronunciation was the Binibini who, in her recorded spiel, said the she loves “going to the ‘bitch.’”

Also, there was a bit of tension in the Twitter-verse when Gretchen Fullido, an entertainment reporter of ABS-CBN, tweeted the numbers of those who made it to the top 15. A lot of tweeps reacted as the delayed telecast of ABS-CBN was still showing the swimsuit competition. Gretchen was criticized by tweeting spoilers, for which she apologized immediately.

But it seems like celebrity tweeps did not learn from the incident Gretchen figured into. TV host Tim Yap and lifestyle columnist Harold Geronimo were among those who tweeted the results of the Binibining Pilipinas pageant while most of the people where still watching the question and answer portion on the delayed telecast.

As expected, both Yap and Geronimo caught the ire of the enthusiastically watching tweeps. In his defense, Geronimo claimed that he should not be faulted for tweeting the results: “Around 82 people who were in Araneta tweeted the winners earlier. Blame it to ABS-CBN for delayed airing.” Yap, on the other hand, said that he had forewarned his readers that he will be tweeting spoilers.

But more than the candidates themselves, perhaps the one who received the bulk of criticism that night was outgoing 2010 Binibining Pilipinas-Universe and 2010 Miss Universe fourth runner-up Venus Raj. Tweeps criticized Venus Raj for her hairstyle, to which most tweeps compared it to the Black Nazarene. Comedian Vice Ganda even tweeted that a manhunt is in order to search for Raj’s hair stylist: “Breaking News: NBI may inilunsad na isang malawakang manhunt upang matukoy ang misteryosong taong nagkulot kay Venus Raj.”

In a report on ABS-CBN’s Showbiz News Ngayon, Venus Raj was said to have taken the criticisms seriously. Venus reportedly cried due to the criticisms hurled against her hairstyle.

Indeed, watching the Binibining Pilipinas pageant, and at the same time tweeting, was hilarious. But as I end this article, let me share with you a tweet sent by my UP Law college-mate, UP Mass Communications summa cum laude and UP Law salutatorian, 2007 Binibining Pilipinas-Universe Ana Theresa Licaros: “All I can say is that it’s not easy to join a beauty pageant. Bago manalit ang iba, try muna nila.”

For more updates, follow this writer on Twitter at @pinoygossipboy.