George Sison

All posts tagged George Sison

Do you believe in how a Miss Universe could be determined based on the 7 Cycles of Life?

Posted by Norman on January 28, 2017
Posted in: 1 Pageant Pages, 2 Shout-out-Looks. Tagged: , , , , , , .

The 7 Cycles of Life according to George Sison

George Sison (rightmost) with Bobby Requintina, Jesson Capuchino and I during our CNN Philippines guesting

When I guested on CNN Philippines for their “Winning the Crown” series for the 65th Miss Universe, I had the opportunity to meet the acquaintance of columnist George Sison (of the Philippine Daily Inquirer) who spoke about the 7 Life of Cycles and how it could benefit some ladies in the competition. I was not in the best of moods to go into the subject matter back then. But he got me into thinking about the results of Miss Universe 2015 when he made a forecast that either Philippines or USA will win because both Pia Wurtzbach and Olivia Jordan were into their 1st Cycles and Ariadna Gutierrez of Colombia was on her 7th (the cycle where one could get both a reward and punishment, or good and bad karma if you will). Funny that the Latina got her big gift for a couple of minutes but was removed immediately after.

And when Pia was announced as the rightful winner, George could only heave a sigh of relief because the life cycles proved him right once more.

In the batch this year, three of the favored (or relatively favored) ladies are in their first life cycles but in varying degrees: Venezuela, Thailand and Argentina. We all know that Mariam Habach celebrated her birthday last Thursday and she really upped her performance to the max during the Preliminaries. She was simply leading the charge whenever she stepped out onstage. Chalita Suansane, on the other hand, did her best to put in solid turns. And she managed, but not to the degree that the Venezuelan turned on the heat really high. Meanwhile, Estefania Bernal gave her personal best and might still end up teetering on whether she will make the cut or not.

Among these three ladies, Venezuela has the upper hand. But wait. Miss Philippines Maxine Medina is in her 6th cycle which is the realm of beauty. Our bet will be at her most beautiful up to Monday’s finals and her charm won’t be ignored by the judges.

So who really has the best chance of winning Miss Universe? I guess – aside from life cycles – she is the candidate who the judges will like the most, the one who ticks all the boxes on all the short- and mid-term priorities the Miss Universe Organization and IMG/WME or that one lucky Miss who will have all her stars aligned on Monday with her arms open wide to catch all the unexpected blessings that could come her way. 😉

Venezuela, Argentina, Thailand and the Philippines: could one of them be the 65th Miss Universe based on life cycles?

Winning the Crown | On the Record for CNN Philippines 

Posted by Norman on January 11, 2017
Posted in: 1 Pageant Pages, 2 Shout-out-Looks, 5 TV Tales. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , .

Group photo during the taping of our episode for the “Winning the Crown” Series of CNN Philippines with host Pinky Webb (center)

It would be an understatement to say that I am enjoying the opportunities that the 65th Miss Universe brings. I am loving them to be honest. Aside from doing live interview videos of the Preliminary Competition, Pre-Finals and Post-Coronation for Rappler Entertainment, I am in the middle of negotiations with TV5 to do another segment coverage of the Preliminaries which the network will exclusively air. And this. The guesting for CNN Philippines for its “On The Record” program with host Pinky Webb.

Earlier in the afternoon at the Lobby Lounge of Okada Manila, your blogger joined columnists George Sison of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Robert Requintina of the Manila Bulletin and fellow blogger Jesson Capuchino of Sash Factor for a lively discussion about the 65th Miss Universe and just about anything related to the pageant.

Shots of the guesting from the monitor


The episode was originally set to have just a 30-minute airing, but with how the actual talks turned out, we got extended for an hour because the show’s producer will have a difficult time editing out all the juicy tidbits that the four of us shared with the host.

The subject matters went from how we individually got hooked on pageantry to how impact-ful the hosting of Miss Universe to how the next winner will be chosen all the way to our early picks to stand out in the competition.

I was also able to meet the friendly Oscar Cabrera, Asia Pacific Entertainment Head for Okada Manila


Do catch the airing of the episode this coming Saturday, January 14 at 9:30PM on CNN Philippines. Modesty aside, I know that you – my dear readers – will share in the joy that I feel for getting this chance to show how passionate I am about Miss Universe and pageantry.

PS I got an extra bonus for meeting the Asia-Pacific Entertainment Head of Okada Manila Oscar Cabrera (a Bolivian expat with the friendliest vibe). He personally invited me to attend the After Party of the 65th Miss Universe to be held at the highly-anticipated Cove Manila on the night of January 30.

More reports to come out soon! 😀