Head-turners and rubber-neckers
“ATHING of beauty is a joy forever!” – John Keats. And the poet continues “… its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness…”
But like the proverbial “segurista” that he is, Capt. Joy Roa doesn’t take chances. The Air Safari peregrinator and events director of the Philippine International Hot-Air balloon Fiesta joined hands with Miss Aviation pageant director Morena Carla Cabrera Quimpo to revive, in 2015 after a long hiatus, the Miss Philippine Aviation pageant. Last Tuesday, they held the finals for the beauty and brains pageant for the year 2016.
The ingenue Christine Malicsi bested 13 other aspirants at the Manila Peninsula Rigodon Ballroom for the coveted Miss Philippine Aviation 2016. Cello Santos and Tricia Abaya were first and second runners-up, respectively. Cleo Margaret Brown made her farewell Miss Philippine Aviation 2015 walk, before transferring the crown to Miss Malicsi.
The Miss Philippine Aviation pageant gives glam and pizzaz to flying and tourism. Those who are longer in the tooth may remember some of the more famous previous winners like Joji Felix Velarde, Josephine Estrada, Annie Corrales, and the last winner in 1971, Lotis Key.
The Miss Aviation of those yesteryears synched with times remembered like our national day celebrations when the Philippine Air Force (PAF) would open the parade with fly pasts. The PAF flight formation of the 16 fighters remains an unbroken record to this day.
Earlier on the same pageant night, the PIHABF Foundation awarded trophies to those who have made invaluable contributions to the promotion of Philippine aviation: Aviators of the Year (Tourism Secretary Ramon R. Jimenez Jr., Clark Development Corporation President and CEO Arthur Tugade, and Capt. Amado Soliman); CAAP Most Valuable Employee (Fe Paat); Longest Participants in Events (Peter Bish and Noboro Satoh); and Civilian Aerobatic Pilot (somersaulting Capt. Meynard Halili).
As the reigning Miss Philippine Aviation, Miss Malicsi will grace the Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta (PIHABF), from February 11 to Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2016. The much anticipated event, “A Weekend of Everything that Flies,” is an annual gathering of aviators, flying enthusiasts, collectors, hobbyists, and the just curious, with something for everyone in the family.
Young and old, the rich and famous as well as the just curious, look forward to non- stop flying exhibitions – like Philippine Army and British skydiving teams, motorized paragliding, hot-air balloon hare-hound chase, alternating aerobatics teams, flying schools fly-by, Philippine Coast Guard helicopter rescue demo, ultra-light aircraft flight flour bombing, car drifting with flour bombing, aerial balloon- bursting competition, radio-controlled model plane flights, kite flying, rocketry, etc.
The hot-air balloon fiesta is the biggest international and local tourism event in Pampanga. Maj. Gen. Raul del Rosario, Clark Air Base commanding general, teamed up with Clark Development Cooperation President and CEO Antonio Arthur Tugade to give more lebensraum and oomph to this year’s fiesta.
BTW, Moebel Garant hot-air balloon pilot Hans Lauten and his crew could not take their eyes off the Miss Aviation contest, especially when it narrowed to the final six. They were looking for some flaws or giveaway signs.
Hans could not take his eyes off the beauties because he said that in this day, where he comes from, “some of the products are not in their original state as endowed by nature.”
Ernie Fajardo interjected that under our very strict truth-in-advertising laws, in Philippine beauty pageants all contestants are pre-qualified to be of natural-born gender.
That was the cue for Gary Lising to weigh in and declaim one of his favorite limericks: “There was a lady from Khartoum Who invited a fairy to her room They spent the whole night, in a hell of a fight As to which should do what And to whom.”