I corresponded with a representative of The Miss Globe Beauty Pageant regarding their announcement that Rowena Lucero (or #Binibini2 Rowena Sasuluya, if you will) will represent the Philippines in The Miss Globe 2020 scheduled next month in Albania.
Here are the essential points:
1) BPCI informed The Miss Globe that they will not be able to send an official candidate due to the pandemic situation.
2) The Miss Globe – with the help of Rodgil Flores and Gio Flores of Kagandahang Flores – checked out potential ladies to fill in the representation. They selected #Binibini2 Rowee Lucero as the one who can meet the last-minute requirements needed. Let me reiterate this: BPCI had no hand in the choice.
3) BPCI will still keep the franchise of The Miss Globe for 2021.
Now for the question if Rowee can still compete in the postponed edition of Bb. Pilipinas, only BPCI can answer that.
A period of 25 years is a “generation” – the time from birth to someone having a child of their own and starting the next generation. For beauty camp Kagandahang Flores, 2020 marks the year of its Silver Jubilee. And Rodgil Flores must be beaming with pride, alongside his cousin Gio Flores, in what their initial efforts have transformed into the past two and a half decades.
It all started from humble beginnings. Back in the mid-90s, the group fielded a sole candidate – Sonia Santiago – for Bb. Pilipinas 1996. In between, more beautiful Filipinas started undergoing training and polish for bigger beauty competitions. And in the process, a good number of the ladies started winning national titles left and right, until their successes were justly rewarded when Precious Lara Quigaman was crowned Miss International 2005 – their very first claim to grand slam fame.
Precious on top, Bea Rose below.
Below is a rundown of the KF alumni who went on to win their international pageants, either here or abroad:
Miss International 2005 Precious Lara Quigaman
Miss International 2013 Bea Rose Santiago
Miss Earth 2008 Karla Henry
Miss Earth 2014 Jamie Herrell
Miss Earth 2015 Angelia Ong
Miss Earth 2017 Karen Ibasco
Miss Intercontinental 2018 Karen Gallman
Miss Asia Pacific International 2018 Sharifa Akeel
Miss Tourism International 2012/13 Rizzini Alexis Gomez
Miss Tourism International 2013/14 Angeli Dione Gomez
Mr Gay World 2017 John Raspado
Mr Gay World 2019 Janjep Carlos
Mister Tourism Ambassador World 2018 Kerr Cruz
I won’t make a separate list of their winners in Bb. Pilipinas, Miss World Philippines, Miss Philippines Earth, Mutya ng Pilipinas/Mutya Pilipinas and even in Mr World Philippines or Misters of Filipinas anymore because this entry will get very long.
Rodgil during one of his training sessions with Miss Universe Philippines 2019 Gazini Ganados
Some of the core members of Team KF
In essence, Team KF discovers and teaches potential women and men to become successful pageant titleholders. The series of training and level workshops are focused on Personality Development, Visual Poise, Fitness, Pageant Question and Answer, Pageant Hair & Make-Up styling and Pageant Catwalk and Projection – all tailored fit for the biggest national pageants for both genders in the Philippines.
KF is now established as one of two most prominent beauty camps as well as internationally sought-after pageant training groups in the country. It’s no secret that beauty queens from other countries have also given their trust to them. And I am not surprised at the progressive move. If at any, that is already expected. Just like the last two Miss Earth winners Phuong Khanh Nguyen of Vietnam and Nellys Pimentel of Puerto Rico. They were both prepared (or perfected, if you will) at KF before their respective competitions.
Rodgil and his 28 Binibinis for Bb. Pilipinas 2020
I can remember during one of his past interviews (watch below) for Assignment Asia of the China Global Television Network (CGTN) how Rodgil called beauty aspirants – “beauty athletes” – because all the learnings are continuously practiced in their individual lives outside the confines of the camp itself. I could not think of a more appropriate term that could better that.
Congratulations to your 25th Anniversary, Kagandahang Flores! Here’s a toast to the passion and unstinting efforts to train a generation of Beautiful Filipinas!
Kagandahang Flores Camp has the most number of #Binibinis among the freshly-announced Official Candidates of Bb. Pilipinas 2020. They have twenty-eight (28).
Aces & Queens follows next with six (6).
RL’s Angels, on the other hand, has one (1).
For now, I am considering the remaining five (5) as #Independents. If they are part of a newly-formed team, then please let me know. 😊
The Pride of Bulacan in Bb. Pilipinas 2020 is here and she is Kimberly Anne Tiquestiques from Balagtas. She is 21 years old with a height of 5’9”.
A product of Kagandahang Flores camp, she will represent my home province – although that wouldn’t be saying much from my personal end as I normally have a tendency not to put too much spotlight on a fellow Bulakenya unless I see her brimming with potentials in the long run.
With Miss Universe 2019 rolling in a little over a few weeks from now, the intensive training of Miss Universe Philippines 2019 Gazini Christiana Jordi Ganados continues.
Photo above shows our Queen with Rodgil Flores of Kagandahang Flores. It was taken just awhile back.
Miss Diva Supranational 2019 Shefali Sood (who will represent India in Miss Supranational 2019) has been training in the Philippines prior to winning the national finals in India earlier this week.
First photo below shows Shefali in a photo with Tito Rodgil Flores inside the Kagandahang Flores Camp in QC. She is a certified #KFamilia.
Last night during dinner (and after the Miss World Philippines 2019 Final Screening, I bumped into Rodgil Flores of Kagandahang Flores. I wasted no time in asking him about the supposed “collaboration” in the training and preparations of Miss Universe Philippines 2019 Gazini Ganados for Miss Universe 2019.
“I want to call it more as cooperation rather than collaboration.” said Tito Rodgil
“Actually, Gazini has already been training with us ever since she won the title. And with her upcoming stint in Miss Universe for the Philippines, it was just right to cooperate and make sure that she will be more than 100% ready for the back-to-back challenge. I am planning to have a private audience with BPCI about the set-up. If our busy schedule permits, I might also meet with Jonas Gaffud to see what inputs he has. This is all for the Philippines.”
Allow me to share a documentary by Raphael Bosano shown on ABSCBN in the late night #NoFilter. It is about the journey of an aspiring beauty queen from scratch until her training at KF. Gezza Avila, newly-crowned Miss Universal Ambassadress Philippines 2019, was featured in the same, along with Rodgil Flores.
Is it just me or is the rivalry of beauty camps not as pronounced in this year’s edition of Bb. Pilipinas compared to the past number of years? Truth be told, it was only now in the homestretch of the competition that I am blogging about this subject matter when it was usually just a day or two of the announcement of Official Candidates that I would do so.
There are those who quip that beauty camps are divisive. But in a pageant-crazy nation like the Philippines, they are already embedded in the fabric of national beauty pageants. They are the crucial support system of the ladies in all the preparations, just as much as being the source of moral and emotional guidance as secondary parents of sorts. I believe that they are here to stay for good.
And then there are the brave Independents who weathered the ups and downs of the journey since Day 1. They have their allies here and there, but nothing that would equate to strength in numbers.
In tomorrow night’s Grand Coronation, expect the camp wars to still be felt, but not to stormy proportions. After all, half of the indies are still in the thick of the fight as front-runners. And if the breaks come their way, I won’t be surprised if they can successfully follow Catriona’s trail in 2018 when she decided to go through the entire thing as one.
Just to formalize now, below are the photo grids of the Binibinis from Kagandahang Flores (KF) Camp and Team Aces&Queens, plus the quartet of Independents in Bb. Pilipinas 2019.
The seventeen Binibinis from KF Camp
The nineteen entries of Team Aces&Queens
The four Independents: Hannah, Julia, Alannis and Samantha Poblete
Hi! Norman here. When I'm not working, I spend most of my free time planning on daily blogs. If you will notice, I always make sure that a fresh topic comes out everyday - not an easy thing to do but it's all good. Thanks for dropping by and enjoy the visit!
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