CARMONA, Cavite – This Cavite eastern town staged on Monday afternoon its first beauty pageant, featuring married moms rearing happy families and demonstrating responsible parenthood.
“Ginang Carmona,” the mom’s pageant , highlighted Carmona’s 161st anniversary celebration from Feb. 19 to 20.
The competition was held at the Kalusuagan Hall Monday with the coronation of the mother beauty queens on Tuesday evening at the Carmona Plaza.
Charmaine Distor, lead organizer from the Municipal Information, Tourism, Culture and Arts Office (MITCAO) told Philippine News Agency that the local government’s pioneering beauty tilt highlighted the beauty of the moms and the focus on motherhood as a lifetime occupation and responsible parenthood.
Distor said that beauteous mom contenders must prove that they are legally married and are not estranged wives to justify that they are happily married and promote gender and development in their communities.
“We would like to showcase the talent and beauty of mothers, how they take care of their families. It’s a celebration of motherhood. We want to give them the opportunity to prove to themselves and to the community na kahit nanay na sila at may mga anak ay di pa rin nila napapabayaan ang sarili nila (even if they were mothers with children, they still have the time to take care of themselves),” explained Dindo Diagoin who collaborated with Rusico Casukay in conceptualizing the moms’ pageant.
Carmona Mayor Dahlia Loyola initiated the town-wide competition covering 14 barangays and wanted to showcase how mothers should be the role models in the community especially in promoting strong bonds in the households amid the challenges confronting modern societies these days.
Loyola also approved the criteria that contenders should be a Carmona resident for 10 years, with at least two children, happily married, 35 to 45 years-old, with pleasing personality, talent and intellect and the height requirement of at least 5 feet, 2 inches.
The mayor also encouraged the widest dissemination for the first “Ginang Carmona 2018” beauty tilt through social media with electronic copies and online application forms weeks before the competition.
The screening process was conducted and not all candidates from the 14 barangays were lucky to join the competition after going through the stringent vetting.
“Mayor Loyola noted exceptions on her post that municipal employees along with their relatives and elected officials up to 1st degree of consanguinity are prohibited to join the pageant,” Distor said.
She said the mom contestants were required to wear Filipiniana and casual and sports attire. Prizes at stake are seven special awards from sponsors while the criteria include talent show, Q & A portion and audience’s impact.
The MITCAO organizers said that since the mayor is also a mother, her priority programs and projects focus on women empowerment.
Loyola also gave her opening salvo through her “Ulat sa Bayan” and led constituents in awarding the town’s Top 10 Taxpayers, Non-Government Organizations and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects.
The mayor joined by Cavite 5th District Representative Roy Loyola, Vice Mayor Cesar Ines, Jr and members of the town legislative council also inaugurated their newly-completed infrastructure projects. (Joshua G. Ganoy, OJT/PNA)
