Resham Ramirez Saeed has the honor of being only the second Muslim to win a Bb. Pilipinas crown – the first one being Reham Snow Tago (left photo being crowned by Cara Subijano) who was proclaimed Bb. Pilipinas World back in 1995. Of course, if you go by national pageants in general, Mutya ng Pilipinas 2018 Sharifa Akeel would be sandwiched in between.

Going back to our subject, this Filipina-Pakistani was a dark horse in the competition right from the start. She may not have been the type who would join the hype of the established front-runners, but she almost always gets the attention of most pageant watchers because of her articulate self and very exotic features. It’s true that she was raised in Canada, but she has done a pretty good job of representing Maguindanao and its local culture.

Last Sunday night, you didn’t see the pressure to successfully deliver in Resham’s performance. That’s the beauty of being a spoiler. The weight of winning is inside, but not to the point of showing it on the outside. It was only during the part of announcement of winners in the TV telecast when the camera would pan in her area that you could notice the earnest look in her face of wanting to be called as one of the new titleholders.

That being said, Resham is now one of our new Queens and a fresh inclusion in the roster of winners. The Miss Supranational IG account has already reported her win plus a virtual welcome to the international family. They even described her as “classy”. So I guess they are more than excited to meet her in person once she competes in Poland.

Happy Philippine Independence Day, everyone!