CARCAR BEAUTY’S DANCING WITH STONE PAYS OFF
A Steve Harvey moment in the Sinulog Festival Queen competition fails to dim the spotlight on Marla Alforque of the Heritage City of Carcar. Among her prizes is the “Inahang Dolly” crown, named in honor of an iconic Sinulog figure.
Amid light rain and a slight mishap, the 2017 Festival Queen pushed forward and crowned a new queen last Friday, Jan. 13, at the Cebu City Sports Complex.
Twenty-year-old Marla Pino Alforque of the Heritage City of Carcar won the prestigious Festival Queen pageant, besting 12 other candidates. Her court is as follows: fourth runnerup, Lara Therese Delica of the Municipality of Tuburan; third runner-up, Marielle Nazarene Densing Cortes of Lanao del Norte; second runner-up, Cristal Jane Lacida of Talisay City; and first runner-up, Ivy Tapic of the Municipality of Asturias.
Alforque, clearly moved but smiling, said that she felt so blessed to have won the coveted crown. “I prayed for this, but I didn’t expect this,” she said.
Preparation
The towering stunner went into more than two weeks of rigorous training as preparation for the pageant, even resorting to carrying a stone while practicing for her dance for her movement
to be more fluid. “Siyempre, sakit kay puypuy kaayo sa bukton pero gikaya lang nako isip halad nako
kang Sto. Niño (Of course, it hurts. My arms were growing weary but I carried on offering it all to Sto. Niño),” she said.
Alforque said that she is inspired by the Carcaranons, her designer and handler, and of course, her family to do her best. She has been joining pageants for more than three years now, which she often dedicates to her family, most especially her father.
Alforque also won first runner-up in the Pride of Festival Costumes and Runway Competition last Jan. 12, held at The Northwing atrium, SM City Cebu. Aside from that, she also won Miss Friendship, Miss Epson and Miss Islands Souvenirs. She also won as the Best Solo Performer and her two-minute group production, which was a new competition in the pageant, won Best in Instrumentation.
Mistake
A mix-up happened during the announcement of the first runner-up, when hosts Vince Escario and 2014 Miss Earth Jamie Herrell hailed Banay Labangon candidate Ceydney Go Bacalso as the first runnerup instead of the Asturias candidate, Ivy Tapic.
Executive Director Ricky Ballesteros of the Sinulog Foundation Inc. immediately knew that something was wrong when the Labangon candidate was named the first runner-up. He was sitting beside Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña when the incident happened and immediately the mayor decided to go up on stage with Ballesteros to correct the mishap.
“The awarding is not accurate,” the mayor declared onstage.
Written on the cue card was the name of Ivy Tapic, who was candidate number 1, but with the wrong candidate number, candidate number 2, which was Bacalso.
Bacalso, even in her disappointment, graciously walked toward Tapic and gave her the flowers and sash that she had held onto for a couple of minutes. The crowd cheered for her as she walked back to her place, graceful in defeat.
Tapic was already a crowd favorite, having bested the other candidates in the Runway Competition and won several corporate and minor awards, including Best in Festival Costume, Best Designer for Festival Costume and Best in Production Presentation.
Ballesteros expressed his sympathy to the Banay Labangon candidate, Bacalso. “I pity candidate number 2. She was a runner-up last year. She’s a very good dancer and I find her pretty also. But we had to correct the mistake and take the responsibility,” he said. “We’re only human beings. We’re bound to commit mistakes every now and then. I think it makes us better organizers.”
Better
On its 14th year, the Festival Queen competition upped its ante with a grander production, adding a new pageant competition, the Group Production Presentation. Each candidate was given two minutes to showcase a Sinulog dance with their contingents.
Mayor Osmeña spoke about his elation about the new segment. “You have a choreographed group of one hundred dancers just to present one candidate. This one, to me, when I saw it, I knew it was going to be something like that, but I didn’t think it would be that spectacular,” he said.
The Festival Queen’s coveted crown was also a new addition to the pageant. The crown, dubbed “Inahang Dolly,” was named after the mother of all Sinulog Festival Queens, Dolly Suzara. It was designed by the Philippines’ Master Couturier, Cary Santiago, and is encrusted with jade, coral stone and Swarovski crystals.