QC judge awards P1.1 M to dethroned beauty queen

MANILA, Philippines - A judge has ordered the organizers of the Mutya ng Pilipinas beauty pageant to pay P1.1 million in damages for stripping 1997 winner Esabela Cabrera of her title and crown without due process.

The ruling by Assisting Judge Ma. Rita Bascos Sarabia of the Regional Trial Court Branch 221 in Quezon City was dated July 1 but received by Cabrera’s lawyer, Nelson Borja, last Saturday.

Sarabia ordered the Miss Asia Pacific Quest, Inc., organizer of Mutya ng Pilipinas Pageant; Carousel Productions, Inc., producer of the pageant; Ramon Monzon, then president of Carousel; Leandro Enrique, then president of Miss Asia Pacific and Lorraine Schuck, co-organizer of the pageant; and first runner-up Sheryll Moraga, who replaced Cabrera and received the prizes, to pay the damages.

Cabrera was crowned as the 1997 Mutya ng Pilipinas, with prizes, in cash and in kind, amounting to P400,000. She was also chosen as Miss Avon and Miss Lux, with both awards carrying cash prizes of P10,000 each plus the opportunity to be a model of Avon Cosmetics and Unilever Philippines, Inc.

Cabrera, through her lawyer, filed in 1997 the case of specific performance with damages and issuance of preliminary prohibitory, mandatory injunction or temporary restraining order a few weeks after she was stripped of her crown.

According to court records, the organizers said the father of Cabrera’s boyfriend informed them that Cabrera was pregnant and was supposed to marry his son soon. Cabrera denied the allegation, but Schuck demanded that the beauty pageant winner submit a resignation letter.

During her meeting with Schuck and Monzon, Cabrera repeatedly and vehemently denied that she was pregnant and would soon get married.

Monzon and Schuck eventually secured from Cabrera a letter referred to as the “resignation letter” as the reigning queen of Mutya 1997. Schuck purportedly told Cabrera that the resignation letter would only serve as a guarantee that if she could not comply with her commitments, it would be submitted to Enriquez and the board for deliberation.

Weeks later, she and her parents did not hear from the defendants until she learned from the newspapers that she was already dethroned and replaced by Moraga. She sent several demand letters to the respondents, urging them to recognize her as the official winner of the pageant but they refused.

In their defense, the organizers claimed Cabrera voluntarily prepared the resignation letter, which her mother gave to Schuck.

Sarabia gave weight to Borja’s arguments that the defendants did not give Cabrera due process before she was dethroned.

“This court is not persuaded with defendants’ claims and defenses. The important matter on the ‘resignation’ of the plaintiff was not brought for agenda, discussion and other official resolution of the board of directors of the concerned corporate entity,” the judge said.