I postponed sleep for almost 2 hours last night after the Bb. Pilipinas 2012 Primer: The Road to the Crown was aired by ABS-CBN at almost half past 11PM. But it was all worth it because the individual interview clips of the 30 Official Candidates gave me a fresher and more renewed sense of what each can offer outside the usual visuals we get to see them in. I also appreciated the several videos shown where they underwent workshops on dancing (c/o Joane Laygo), styling (c/o Bang Pineda), posture & projection (c/o Precious Lara Quigaman) and the dreaded Q&A (c/o THE Boy Abunda).

In it, the veritable standouts in terms of self-expression and the natural (and candid) ability to compose themselves in front of the camera are:

Katrina Dimaranan is inarguably the best speaker of the lot. With her deep throaty voice, she can fluidly speak beyond her 18 years and relate on different subject matters with ease.

Nicole Schmitz is another cool and collected person when talking about random thoughts and the like. Her style is very relaxed. By the way, she was announced winner of the Best in National Costume towards the end of the program.

Karen Gallman is as spontaneous as she can get. Add to that her sweet manner of telling the most painful episode of her life (about almost losing one of her hands after one of the bones was nearly rendered useless) and how she survived after many operations is something that another individual could’ve done with excessive dramatics.

Ma. Alicia Elena Ariosa may not be the most engaging (read: too serious-looking) talker but she delivers her lines in grammatically correct English.

Instead of doing straight English, Golda Mae Soller intimated details about her life in Taglish. But this did not stop me from liking her train of thoughts. One can actually feel her strong desire to become a beauty queen after meeting her parents’ wish for her to become a Doctor first.

Elaine Kay Moll was a quiet surprise for me. She spoke sensibly and was never at a loss for words. Her style is more straight to the point.

Nicole Marable, on the other hand, may be the youngest but she clearly knows what she’s talking about. And in good English at that. There is definitely rawness in her approach, but nothing that would keep people from listening to her.

Marie Irisha Arcenas is another articulate lady. She did not deliver her replies with an American twang and instead, showed a no-nonsense style of English speaking.

How about the ones I started having my doubts on? Well, there are 3 ladies I initially had modest expectations from, but showed misses that need to be improved. I don’t mind hearing them speak 100% in the vernacular, but something needs to be done to correct the delivery so people won’t get turned off so easily. They are:

Okay, so Jillean Camille Orbina is more comfortable speaking in Tagalog. But she needs to refine the way by which she does. She comes off as rough in many ways. Some may call it natural. I see it as lacking in poise.

Another one is Roxane Joy Jesalva. I realized that she speaks with a thick regional accent, but there is a better way of getting around without it coming off too strong for people’s taste, like splicing her lines with some English here and there. Polishing in communication is a must.

Annalie Forbes is a true-blue Bulakena and it is reflected in her manner of speech. But for someone who works as a lounge singer in 5-star hotels and who must’ve learned how to deliver spiels and ad-libs in between songs, she projects roughness that I half-expected to be…well…not there.

As for the rest, especially the favorites not included above, they simply performed accordingly – neither attention-grabbing nor disappointing. In short, they were ok. Girls in this group are Janine Tugonon, Mary Jean Lastimosa, Liezl Alcantara and Patricia Lae Ejercitado.

These impressions are based on what was shown during the Primer. The ones I did like show the kind of promise that gives a stamp of approval on how I have been scoring them so far, while the ones who stood out on a not-so-positive way can still try to improve.

What say you, dear readers? 😉

So you can judge for yourselves, here are uploaded videos of the Primer courtesy of theEmeraldVideos