I concur with almost your comments regarding the Miss Universe Philippines 2021 Tourism Videos. They are all winners. And the respective LGUs should be grateful for their efforts. There is nothing like a phenomenal woman inviting local and foreign tourists to visit the places they represent.
With this in mind, allow me to share my personal favorites – videos which effortlessly tell me to visit or re-visit.
From Luzon: Laguna (visually grabbing) and Angeles City (excellent script and narration)
Honorable mentions: Pangasinan and Cavite
From NCR: Taguig City (she simply knows how to project herself to the camera and sell the city with ease) and Mandaluyong City (the concept of transforming the old joke associated with the place to a warm welcome to come inside is heartwarming)
Honorable mention: Manila (if not for the unsteady camera at times, I would be sold)
From the Visayas: Cebu Province (story-telling Tourism at its finest) and Iloilo City (the clever parallelism between the candidate and her rise to become a Beauty Queen)
Honorable mention: Cebu City (less of Luigi and more of the city could have made a big difference in the good effort of promoting it)
From Mindanao: Cagayan de Oro City (the fun and upbeat vibe is inviting) and Misamis Oriental (you can tell that the entire video received the full assistance and support of the LGU)
Honorable mention: Bukidnon (great cinematography and horse-riding from the candidate)
normannorman.com 
two more long weeks … more than enough time … please further trim down to the very best top 15 ! … let them all fight it out on Finals Night !
Leren has the best video
Maureen has the best delivery
Steffi’s video is good , too .. but her delivery lacks spontaneity
@ Fabian Reyes With very little, if any, ‘talk’/script, Leren couldn’t be any more non-spontaneous.
But ja. The video is so well-made. Not to mention the approval of advertisers. Did you get ad placements when you watched? Or, maybe you’re using ad-free YouTube ‘Premium’…
(Makes you wonder if may ‘fuerza’ na kumikilos para manalo siya. One well-entrenched. My filthy mind at work and at play.)
Wow ang galing Paui. I have also watched and read articles on the importance and impact of teeth (size, alignment, etc) on the overall facial aesthetics. There are YouTube videos on “facial collapse that are remedied just be teeth alignment.
Sige, I will try to guess your blind items based on your initials. I hope these are recent beauty queens and not the beauty queens during the heyday of Flor Tulo and Fabian Reyes. Lol.
It is okay to be judgmental. As Stanford Blatch would say “some people do arts and crafts, we judge.” Lol. In fact I am now curious and jealous : what profession brings in bread and butter just by judging? Are there openings? Lol.
World Peace.
MUPO combining ‘Luzon and NCR’ does NOT sound comforting. 😦
Like ‘Africa and Asia-Pacific’ in the continental format at MU last… 2019?
(Cont.)
Admin, what do ALL 100 ladies get for their ‘input’ and compliance with ‘requirements’, regardless of placement?
Kasi, ang impression ko, andami’ng pinagawa/hiningi ang MUPO sa mga aplikante… Ta’s, what?
😦
For going through all these, what did they commit to the 100? Never mind the winner, who gets all.
I’m a bit disapointed with Jasmine Umali, she should have consulted with many historians before creating her Video… it is extremely innacurate.😬 Cringe level 99999999999999999999 😬
FYI, Binondo was only established during the early Spanish era because the original China town was actually in Parian de Arroceros beside Intramuros which was a plaza/marketplace complete with houses and even a Chinese cemetery…. and the Place may have indeed been dominanted by Chinese but there were also Japs, Koreans(Chinese tributary Kingdoms), Munchurians, Chaupchey(North Vietnamese), Tatars, Okinawans(Kingdom of Ryuku), etc…. The earlier settlers led by the Songs(from Southern Song empire) revolted and was defeated thus they were forced to migrate to Central and Southern Luzon(Funny, also her ancestor).. The Spaniards wanted to prevent future revolts by destroying the archeological evidences of Chinese and other pre-colonial settlements in that area, dividing the people and relocating the more recent settlers… The Japs, Okinawans, etc. were settled at Plaza Azul/Plaza Dilaw at Paco/Pandacan while the Cantonese and some Mandarins, Munchurians, Chaupchey(North Vietnamese), etc. were relocated to what is now Binondo….
In WorldWar II, it was actually the Americans who bombed Intramuros because the Japanese purposely hid in the historical buildings to protect themselves. Too bad, the Americans did not care or may have intentionaly bombed those gov’t buildings and historical sites for them to excavate & rebuild later on.
It’s actually the Spaniards who burned Intramuros to the ground and passed the blame on Jasmine’s direct ancestors Rajah Matanda, Rajah Sulayman and/or Lakan Dula. 🙄 Ironicaly, prior to Spanish and Catholic church intervention, it was her ancestors who are avid historians, histographers, genealogists, etc. for hundreds or even thousands of years… So sad that kind of enthusiasm ended in her branch of the family.. 🙄
My Current Top 16 in random order
Maureen Wroblewitz
Steffi Aberasturi
Corine Abalos
Ingrid Santamaria
Katrina Dimaranan
Bea Gomez
Leren Bautista
Victoria Velasquez Vincent
Mirjan Hipolito
Jasmine Umali
Kesha Ramachandran
Chela Falconer
Janela Cuaton
Megan Roa Digal
Isabelle Delos Santos
Rosanne Bernos
I like Steffi’s video, too.
I am a bit bothered by the way Steffi smiles, though. It looks forced. Like a little girl coached by her parents to smile big on stage.
I’ve seen a video of her with her sister where they went to a spa or something.
She doesn’t do that forced smile at all. She’s very natural and still bubbly. But she never stretch her cheeks to show her mandibles.
Just a little observation. But if she really smiles this big naturally in person, then I apologize for pointing that out.
It’s the veneers. It changes the face and the facial expressions. I wish girls with good enough teeth would think twice before giving in to the pressures of pageant perfect teeth.
Samantha Bernardo’s veneers improved her face and jaw shape (Google before and after.) I am yet to see another pageant girl whose face benefitted from veneers. Most I’ve seen developed TMD (jaw
issues), facial asymmetries, facial melting (there’s a nerdier term, but basically, when you change the dynamics of the bite, it changes how the facial muscles work for chewing, speaking, smiling, and resting so some muscles deteriorate over time, some get overworked and get bigger, etc. effectively changing the structure of the face.)
Veneer issues usually show up in the way the eyes look after a some time. You see, the teeth are like the foundation of the face, and when you change them, you change how the “soft” parts of the face rest on that foundation. Poorly done veneers make the cheek muscles sag, thereby making the lower eyelid sit differently over the bone, showing more of the sclera, contributing to an overall tired and old look (“haggard.”) Often, it causes a strained smile.
I can name pageant girls whose faces changed for the worse after getting poorly done veneers. But I don’t want it to be misinterpreted as bashing. As for Steffi, I wish she kept her natural teeth and went with invisalign to fix that minor misalignment of one tooth. It’s always sad to see naturally pretty girls with minor indiscernible flaws end up looking less pretty after fixing that one minor flaw.
I think the issue is also with handlers who force their girls to get veneers and botox and fillers and unnecessary surgeries. They want to copy Venezuela, without realizing we do not have the decades of experience and beauty technology (not to mention fine tastes) that Venezuelan surgeons and cosmetic doctors have.
*after some time
Dear Paui,
Please name pageant girls whose faces changed after some procedures done. Promise, we won’t call it bashing. We will call it “learnings”. Lol.
World Peace.
@thomas
yeah, no, I don’t want the 40+ downvoting bots to come at me again haha
Oh Paui. You are breaking my heart – – you of all people, affected by a possible 40+ dislikes? You are better than that. Lol. Give clues and I will guess. Lol.
Can you imagine if all commenters here are Pollyannas singing praises and mantras about all inclusivity , all girls are beautiful including Jonas Ganid?
World Peace.
@paui ang ginagawa kasi dito they x ray the mouth then put veneers agad. In Venezuela, ( I watched Valentina Figueras vlog) tinahi talaga ang bunganga nya like major surgery to achieve a Farah Fawcett Smile. They don’t just put veneers and then bye. Major tahian ang nagaganap. I also watched a documentary from 2001 in Venezuela where Osmel bring a “smile surgeon” analyze the girl’s smile and then the surgeonn would suggest procedure.
Oh god! Can’t they just bleach their teeth white?
In the end it is the girl’s decision to go through any enhancement. But I agree with Paui that the handlers or even the org (MUPH I’m looking at you!) must not to pressure the girl that to go through these procedures.
If it is the procedure that caused it, then we cannot tell Steffi to stop smiling like Jim Carrey.
Sorry, I’m really distracted by her forced smile.
@thomas
Oh you know, I have days when I don’t feel like dealing with baby bra warriors. Speaking the truth ruffles feathers and I don’t feel like ruffling feathers sometimes.
But for your satisfaction, here are girls whose veneers botched their faces (and skulls and postures as these are interrelated):
AO – asymmetry, “haggard” look, facial melting as I call it
AC – glaring asymmetry, she’s starting to have lisping & speaking issues
CG – early signs of asymmetry, her “smirk” is really more of an uneven bite causing the muscles on the right side of the face to be more toned and engaged than the left.
VR – lengthening of the face caused by veneers being much longer than her real teeth
MG – lost the youthful, girl-next-door appeal, flattened her profile
CO – oversized veneers overworked her jaw muscles, set back her chin, giving her a “monay” look as was commented by someone on this blog
GG – same case with CO though more subtle, the effect on her is a rounder face with less cheek, jaw, and chin definition
RM – a lot of people wondered why she looked so different during the nationals and during her international stint. I don’t think she had anything done on her face except her veneers. It aged her eyes, overworked her jaw muscles, and change the way she smiled.
ML – oversized veneers gave her a round face
Facial assessment is part of my daily life. Being judgmental is my bread and butter, so I apologize if I can’t unsee things and just have to share them. Deep down I feel like I should make it my life’s mission to warn girls about the dangers of unnecessary cosmetic procedures and the effect of bad habits (poor posture, asymmetrical facial expressions, etc.) on beauty. Also, I really just personally hate the overly done look. Natural and healthy > pageant perfect.
To anyone who’d like to understand this further, stand in front of a mirror and change your bite – protrude/retrude your jaw, bite with just one side of your teeth, close your mouth with your teeth not touching, close your mouth with your teeth clenched, etc. Observe your muscles and imagine keeping these uneven, unhealthy bites for months and years due to veneers/bad habits and how these could overwork some muscles (making them bigger) and underwork some muscles (making them atrophy.) Facial beauty is directly affected by the dynamics of these structures and organs, unnoticeably at first, but over time the negative effects add up. These also displace and reshape facial features, cause lines and bags and hollowness where there shouldn’t be any, and just overall change the face.
Back to Steffi. I saw a 2015 photo of her pre-veneers and she looked better with her natural smile.
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
@ paui Of course, with your ‘double letters’ it is safe to assume more than one camp is involved.
🙂
ML, GG, and VV are dead give-away. This has been going on for a while, hasn’t it?
Ikaw ba ‘yun’g nagsabi’ng maayos din gumawa ang Koreans? Good alternative to Venezuela?
Erratum VR
Honga, no! 😦
(Not VV, not… MUP-CDO 2021…)
DON’T TELL US AMONG THIS BATCH, MAYROON DIN!!? Cr_p.
Total nagname ka na ng initials, I would also list my natural teeth favorite smiles.
Sa mga medyo matanda si Nina Alagao. Mukhang veneers ang KANYANG ngipin pero totoong ngipin nya yan. To my knowledge, amoung our BBP reigning queens, Hannah Arnold and Maureen Montagne possessed a natural white teeth. Both grew abroad where dental care for children is a priority. Pat Babista, Karen Laurie Mendoza don’t have veneers too. In 2018 I only know Anjame Magbitang na walang veneers. Hahaha. In 2019 Jessica marasigan who grew up in the US too.
Paui if I would suggest yo this girls who have awful smile, better ready a hefty amount of money to do major orthodontic and jaw surgery like what they did to Irene Esser of Vnzla or Laura Gonzalez from Colombia. Dito kase ang uso is breast, nose pa. Darating din tayo Jan. Hahahaha.
It’s Hipolito, Dimaranan, and Aberasturi for me. I love the way they talk. Their voices are very soothing. I love the way they promote their respective places. More than the beautiful and historical places, the people themselves are the best tourist attractions. Katrina, Mirjan, and Steffi are indications why Filipinas are among the best in the world.
I couldn’t tell who is more beautiful… Laguna or Leren?
Most videos are amazing! Even the ones shot in more urban areas are very inviting.
There really are so much more to see in the PH. ❤️
I thank these ladies and their teams for a job well done promoting tourism.
Leren’s video even if sans the voice over is still the best for me. One of the instances when silence is golden. Your focus is now on the visuals and that gorgeous face. Her video succeeds in its goal to entice and beckon viewers to go and visit the place.
Second place goes to the Cebu Province video. The narrative, the beautiful Steffi, the breathtaking places, the food and Cebuanos’ strong faith all add up to one effective tourism promo.
Third place goes to Taguig with the magnetism that Ms. Dimaranan radiates the moment she give her opening spiel. One can’t help but be glued to her video. Katrina’s dusky Pinay features and towering height sets her apart from the other girls. There were angles where she reminded me of a younger Princess Punzalan which is not bad actually as I’ve seen the former actress in person and she’s beautiful. She just needs to find the right styling and look that would make her more globally appealing. I also love the warmth and charm she exuded with her speaking voice
Coincidentaly.. Princess Punzalan has a common ancestor as Bella Yshmael & Jasmine Umali..
Wala lang mema lang…🤣🤣🤣
Common ancestor… lol! Closer2Fame, are you a phylogeneticist? ❤️
@Nunya
Not really… I’m more of hardcore history enthusiast…
For this alone, I have to reiterate
that Leren’s video is in a class of
its own.
Ironic that it somehow reflects
her – beautiful in silence.
But reality sets in, MU is looking
for someone who “can speak”. 🙄
—
Steffi is my 2nd. Hers is a combination
of Leren’s impeccable cameworks
and Mirjan’s narration.
Mirjan is my 3rd choice. She is simply beautiful.
Her angelic voice complemented
the heartfelt narrative she is conveying. ❤️
Based on this activity alone,
I have to reiterate that Leren’s video
is in a class of its own.
Ironic that it somehow reflects
her – beautiful in silence.
But reality sets in, MU is looking
for someone who “can speak”. 🙄
—
Steffi ranks 2nd. Hers is a combination
of Leren’s impeccable cameworks
and Mirjan’s narration.
Mirjan is my 3rd choice. She is simply beautiful.
Her angelic voice complemented
the heartfelt narrative she is conveying. ❤️
Bakit hindi nagsalita si LEREN sa video niya?
I probably watched Leren’s video at least 5 times and I can’t get enough. She has the best videography team amongst the candidates. I can’t even get through and finish the other candidates videos because I got bored halfway through. With that said, Leren wasn’t even my bet to win, nor do I think she will win. However she should be the face for Laguna’s tourism.
Leren: good job! maintain your strategy of not talking. less talk more chances of winning.
Mirjan: yung eroplanong papel ba halaw sa bangjang papel ni GMA? kamustah na man ang pasilip ng pads?
Katrina: bet ko ang Marielle Padilla voice mo.
Corrine: basa pa more
Steffi: naggatas nacrin naman ng baka saba pibakita talagang may tumulo.
Khesha: wala na bang ibang hair style at lagi bang bronze ang make up?
My favorite video and is way above the rest is that of my favorite Leren Mae Bautista.
The video brings its viewers to the different places of Laguna and with someone who is as pretty as Leren inviting everyone to her province, who are we to decline hahaha! (Biased?)
Katrina’s is good too and I just noticed that she and Naomi Campbell have similar speaking voice.
I don’t like Steffi’s video though.
VVV is not that pretty as everyone here is saying.
Lastly, #LerenMaeBautista for MUPh2021❤️💙
Leren plays her card very well. She really invest with her strength of not talking. Good job Leren!
Laguna and Cebu Province have the best videography teams. Consistent the best ang videos nila.
After re-watching the videos and being enlightened that while this segment is a non-competition activity, although might influence the decision of the judges, I will have to agree with the favorites of Norman.
> All videos are well-made. Their respective LGUs should be proud of these girls and their teams. Congratulations to all.
> DOT should be tapping your teams. They do better videos than DOT.
> But yes, the six choices of Norman quite above the rest. With LAguna as the best tourism video.
Some realizations:
Many of the girls are becoming more and more beautiful in my eyes. I used to limit the facially beautiful to only a handful. But the more I see these girls in motion and in various clothes and settings, I’d say there are many beautiful and articulate girls in this batch.
Steffie seems to be ALWAYS included in the top tier for many of these pre-pageant activities. Is this an indication?
My top six remains to be the same: Maureen, Steffie, Victoria, Katrina, Bea and Leren. I am willing to be surprised though in the coming days.
World Peace.