Last night at Oakwood Joy~Nostalg Center in Ortigas, Carousel Productions introduced two firsts in their pre-pageant activities for Miss Philippines Earth 2017. The usually closed-door preliminary judging of the swimsuit competition – dubbed Beauty of Figure – was made open to the public – with select members of the media and special guests in attendance. And what was more intriguing to most came during the actual judging when the candidates individually paraded in black two-piece swimwears with their faces veiled in black.

Reviews were mixed as some quarters did not particularly liked the implication of faceless bodies being assessed. There were comments that stated opposition since the entire judging should really complete the look – face/body, confidence and physical fitness. I was also taken aback by the novel idea. It wasn’t easy covering the event where faces are covered. Someone even joked that the ladies appeared like going for a swim but got lost along the way and ended up attending a wake instead. A bad quip really, but it can’t really be helped because even the press photographers got uneasy taking good pictures when the faces could not be properly matched with the figures. The organizers defended the concept by stating that the focus is really on Beauty of Figure, just as next week’s Beauty of Face/Poise will zero in on the ones with the…what else but beautiful faces. And on July 10, Beauty of Intelligence will have them scored on how well they can handle Q&As.

Mercifully, the veils were removed as soon as the preliminary judging was completed. The smiles on the ladies’ faces made up for the earlier cover-ups. Here are sample photos from last night’s activity.