POTENTIALLY PRESTIGIOUS MALE PAGEANT OFF TO A VERY BAD START

(Note: for the purpose of not brazenly naming the pageant and the people involved, some of whom I know personally, I am identifying them with aliases instead.)

Fresh from an unpleasant experience last March entering one of my talents in a very hastily organized male pageant whose judging procedure seemed anomalous, I was incensed at the same hastiness with which this other more recent male pageant (MP) was conducted. But more than that I was greatly disappointed at the outcome of the competition, not necessarily because the eventual titleholder didn’t deserve to win – honestly, I think he was somewhat, I repeat somewhat, deserving but not of the major title – but because of the manner by which the selection of winners was made and also because of certain things that happened “behind” prior to the finals which made the whole thing suspicious.

In writing this I do not wish to cast aspersions on the producing entity (PE) which I have respect for more than I do the “other” pageant organizer, nor on the organizing foundation (OF). And in fairness to the person who was tasked to organize the pageant – let’s refer to him as MO (as in Mr. Organizer) – he did his best to come up with a male pageant and even he was clueless as to why things turned out the way they did.

What could have been an honest to goodness and supposedly prestigious-male-pageant-in-the-making turned out to be what seemed to me like another anomalous competition. Here’s my personal account of what I believe made the results of this competition suspicious based on my own observation and those of the candidates themselves. I hope PE and OF will take this in the spirit in which it is being given – constructive criticism – so that the same could be avoided next time. That is if they get to read this, I’m sure they would know that it is they I am referring to.

During the final screening for MP four applicants caught my attention (one backed out on the day of the finals, while two of them eventually ended up in the final five). One, because they all wore uniform black t-shirts which made me conclude that they were probably from one agent. Besides, they were always huddled together. And two, because I knew one of them, let’s call him C10. In fact, when I – along with another agent – was contacted by MO (who incidentally was one of the five candidates who were unceremoniously disqualified in the other male pageant) inviting us to bring in talents to the pre-screening, C10 (a freelance model) was one of those I texted first (aside, of course, from my exclusive talent C4 who eventually also made it as an official MP candidate).

I have known C10 for quite a while – but not in a personal capacity – and although I thought he lacked the personality I knew he’d somehow make a worthy MP candidate, if only for his looks, height and body which, although not that outstanding, could possibly land him a slot in the final five. When I texted him inviting him to attend the first MP screening he said “sorry tito hindi ako puwede” which I understood because I knew he had an “Earth Hour” event at MOA that day. But when I texted him again for the second screening I didn’t get any reply. So I thought he wasn’t really interested.

Imagine my surprise, therefore, when I saw him during the final screening of MP. Somewhat incensed at seeing him there, I couldn’t help approaching him and asking “di ba ako nagtext sa ‘yo tungkol dito?” To which he replied “tito may nag-inform na po sa akin bago pa kayo nagtext”. I told him that wasn’t true. It was only me and another agent that MO informed about the first screening as he didn’t want it to turn out “magulo”. Besides, the first time I texted him he didn’t mention that someone else had already informed him about it (remember he just said “sorry tito hindi ako puwede”), in which case it would have been perfectly alright with me. After asking who brought him there – he mentioned a certain Melanie (if I remember correctly) of a certain agency (which I haven’t heard about in the few years that I’ve been in the talent handling business) – I dropped the subject. If he really wanted to be handled by another agent for MP, then so be it. It’s a free country after all. But lying to me was a totally different story. I just hate liars.

During the course of the pageant I noticed that his group was somewhat getting favorable treatment. During one of the scheduled briefings, three of them arrived very late but were not even reprimanded.

Then when some of the candidates were asked to act as escorts at the evening gown competition of the female edition (FE) of the contest, the group was conspicuously absent. It was as if someone had tipped them off that it was going to be a “disastrous” evening for the escorts (more on this later).

And during the rehearsal a day before the finals, I was somewhat taken aback when the director asked “sino yung apat na maagang aalis?” I thought, why allow some of the candidates to leave early when rehearsal was very crucial. Why ask that, right in front of all the other candidates? That, to me, was a very shameless act that only showed how favored those four guys were. I learned later that the quartet did a photoshoot somewhere in Quezon City. Now as a pageant organizer myself – I was part of the group that co-produced Bodyshots 2001 with the FDAP; and I conceptualized and organized the Kouros Male Model Search (2004-2006), Natatanging Ginoo’t Binibini ng Overseas Filipinos (2006) and the search for The Most Promising Filipino Model (2008) – something like this was totally unacceptable especially on rehearsal day. Either the candidates in question forego whatever gig they had to go to or opt out of the pageant earlier on if they foresaw a conflict in schedule. In this case, it was just a photoshoot which could have easily been rescheduled in favor of – in the viewpoint of a pageant organizer – the more important rehearsal. What made it worse was when the rest of the candidates who continued rehearsing way until evening (without dinner being provided at that) was told that they had to wait for the return of the quartet so that they could do a final run-through (they came back from the photoshoot at past 8 pm). I don’t know about you but that to me was utterly inappropriate, unfair and unprofessional. After the pageant I learned from the candidates themselves that the said photoshoot was for two of the sponsors of the pageant, a shoe company (SC) and a fashion designer (FD). Was it ethical for the two sponsors to get only those four candidates for a private photoshoot even before a set of winners has been proclaimed? Whether it was for either or both of the two sponsors’ use is immaterial. It smacked of favoritism and impropriety.

April 22, 2010. Pageant day. I was told by MO himself that FD (yes, the same sponsor involved in the photoshoot) who was an outfit sponsor for two segments of the pageant created a scandal at the H2O Hotel, even shouting invectives at MO and behaving in a manner that would have put palengkeras to shame. A female PE/OF official even witnessed the skirmish. What could have escalated into a much uglier scenario was prevented when a former FE winner intervened. The reason apparently for FD’s fit and rude behavior was that he wanted a big make-up room. This despite MO having already provided him and his staff a room at the hotel. FD even threatened to pull out his outfits. Talk about attitude and unprofessionalism. (Unknown to the people who were already there at the venue that time, the pageant was almost cancelled. PE/OF officials only prevailed upon MO to go on.) For the life of me, in the first place I couldn’t see why FD who was merely sponsoring a segment should demand for a make-up room and why it seemed like he had a big say in the competition, like he was untouchable. Which leads me to why I thought this competition was a big farce.

We found out that FD was the one who fielded the four candidates that I felt were being given preferential treatment. Apparently, they were entered under the pretense of being talents of the Melanie that C10 mentioned to me. The truth, it turned out, was that they were actually sent in by FD. So probably the reason why C10 didn’t want me to enter him in the pageant was because he had a much better-placed “handler”. I then sensed that something irregular was going to happen. It seemed I was right.

C10 and another one in the quartet, C11, made it to the final 5. And that’s what infuriates me. Not that they didn’t deserve it per se. What was not ok were the factors that surrounded their winning. Like, both of them won special awards. Again, nothing wrong with that per se. The thing was, C10 won one award which was judged by – hold your breath – FD himself. As to C11’s Mr. Talent award, it was quite obvious that C7 instead should have won it hands down. Sorry C11, you’re cute and even cuter in your dance number even though there were a few awkward moves, but that was all there is to your talent – pa-cute. Everyone thought C7 – with his bartending skills – should have taken the Mr. Talent award. C10, on the other hand, won many of the special awards (some of which, in my personal opinion, were undeserved).

To sum it up, judging – if indeed the judges (which numbered almost twenty if I’m not mistaken) did have the final say – was clearly anomalous. But taking into consideration all my observations as articulated here, one need not be a genius to conclude that there were indeed irregularities which were blatantly committed.
On hindsight, by the way, I remember MO telling me (the first time he called me regarding the pageant) that the MP was to be a “Fun for a Cause” project of the OF. Had I known that the MP would be literally that – just for fun which, by all indications, it merely was, I and my talent wouldn’t have wasted our time, effort and money (incurred by transportation costs since the venue was so out-of-the-way) joining it.

Incidentally, also during his first call to me I was asked by MO if I knew anyone who could direct the MP finals. I said yes and referred my fashion director friend, a veteran in fashion shows, pageants and special events. However, when I got back to him he told me that PE (or was it OF) had already engaged the services of another director (let’s refer to him as DIR) who turned out to be, I heard, the manager of the winner of the other supposedly prestigious male pageant. When I learned about this I expressed to MO my apprehensions, but he assured me that nothing like the other pageant’s improprieties would happen and that DIR will have nothing to do with the judging. Oh well, it seemed he did. (A few days after the pageant I received an anonymous text message saying, among other things, that the judges were useless because it was FD and DIR’s group’s decision that prevailed).

PE and OF wasted the opportunity to start a potentially prestigious and relevant male pageant. With due respect, allow me to suggest a few things for next year’s edition of the pageant:

1. This I intimated to a PE/OF official when I saw her outside on my way out of the venue: NEVER allow any of your sponsors to field in their own candidates. It would have been alright had the sponsor in question not intervened in the selection process nor peddled influence on another sponsor. I say this because, remember the photoshoot I mentioned earlier? The other sponsor involved also gave out a special award and C10, one of the guys in the shoot, won the award. FD’s talents who won awards and placed in the top five may have – again, may have – deserved it, but the manner by which they won definitely left a very very very bad taste in the mouth.

2. Give due importance to the pageant. No, of course not the same level as that accorded FE (the male of the species, after all, are never given as much importance in this kind of stuff), but for God’s sake don’t make the male edition merely a recruiting ground for escorts to FE candidates. The poor young lads didn’t spend money and exert effort attending the activities just to end up acting as escorts. If you merely wanted to save on Talent Fee (TF) costs you could have gotten others outside MP who would be willing to escort for free.

3. Speaking of which, during the FE evening gown competition the ten candidates who were assigned to do the escorting were not fed on time. They were brought to the venue at around 3 p.m. for rehearsal and were not even offered merienda. At around 8:30 p.m., before the actual competition started, one of the candidates (not my talent) texted that they haven’t been given dinner. Not even water. It was only after I called MO who followed it up with the people in-charge at the venue were they told that packed dinner was on its way. An ordeal it was. And to think that the escorting job didn’t have any talent fee (TF) attached to it. And by the way, I don’t know how accurate this is but I was told that the guys were not even properly introduced as MP candidates, which really made them look like mere escorts. Or probably all ten of them just didn’t hear it.

4. Ensure that there is a fair amount of publicity and media exposure for the candidates. After all, that’s one of the things those young men expected when they joined. As it was, there wasn’t even one single press or at least photo release about the pageant. Taking pity on the candidates, a day before the finals night I took it upon myself to bring my own camera and photograph each of them (one headshot & one medium shot each) during a break in their rehearsal, and post them in my own multiply accounts. At least it could be said that some pre-finals photos of the pageant did appear in the net.

5. I gathered after the pageant that people in the audience and even the candidates themselves noticed that during the announcement of the winners, someone from the director’s group was merely writing the results on a piece of paper before being handed to the host. This is another big no-no because it makes the judging and announcement procedures appear very dubious.

And oh, one more thing, FD’s three candidates were all properly made up and dressed up during the opening production number. This despite specific instruction for each candidate to wear something that would represent what they see themselves to be ten years from now. While all the others wore chef’s uniform, athletic gear, soldier’s fatigue, etc., the three wore beautiful eye-catching stylized Barongs created by no less than FD himself. He certainly made sure that the three got that much needed attention and, may I add, undue advantage over the other candidates.

And if the other candidates themselves are to be believed, FD’s talents got special attention even backstage. C10, for example, was said to have FD’s or was it DIR’s staff swarming all over him to do retouches after every appearance on stage.

Lastly, recently I met one of the judges accidentally and we got to talk about the pageant. I found out that my talent C4 was supposed to have been given one of the more substantial special awards but since the award’s sponsor saw the trend – which was C10 getting most of the awards – the sponsor decided to give the award to the latter instead. Now if that doesn’t seem unfair, I don’t know what is.

Enough said. You be the judge.

The organizers – PE and OF – wasted a perfect opportunity to create a good impression for the male pageant that they plan to make an annual event. They should have devoted time and effort to the pageant’s first edition. More than that, they should have ensured clean results. On the contrary, they have given the potentially prestigious and relevant pageant a very bad impression image. It was a total waste of time, effort, money and attention.