Of Mentors and Muses

By Ariel Allosada Allera

The first time I met our brand-new Miss Universe Philippines 2021 Beatrice Luigi Gomez was in 2016, during the “Art of Hablon” fashion show directed by Dexter Alazas at Circa 1900 in Cebu City.

Having won the Miss Mandaue 2015 second runner-up title the year prior and Miss CESAFI (Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc.) in 2012, the twenty-one-year-old Bea Gomez worked as protocol officer reporting directly to Mayor Luigi Quisumbing at the Mandaue City Hall, the reason why she had to take a semester or more off from her studies as a Mass Communications stunner at the University of San Jose-Recoletos.

I was introduced to the future Miss Universe Philippines by Dexter Alazas, the managing director of AD Models Philippines Homme et Femme (Bea’s home and training ground since she was thirteen years old). The plan to send her to the Binibining Pilipinas pageant (when the Miss Universe Philippines title was still given under the Big Dome’s roof) was in the works.

So to lay the groundwork for the national competition in the long run, the face of AD Models Philippines Femme joined the three-year-old Binibining Cebu 2020 pageant where, of course, she won the crown hands down at the Pacific Grand Ballroom of Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino.

Bea’s stage presence there and eventually at the recent Miss Universe Philippines 2021 pageant at the Henann Resort Convention Center in Alona Beach, Panglao Island, Bohol, was too formidable to ignore. She nailed it all from the start: the Introduction Challenge out of one hundred entrants; both the Swimsuit and Evening Gown competitions and also the Q and A round during the coronation night.

She was a goddess with her jet black long hair, clearly a shoo-in and a standout from the rest even if you would say that they were equally beautiful.

I remember watching Bea glide onstage as an AD model at the “Art of Hablon” fashion show in Circa five years ago and watching in awe of her while I was there covering the event for my blog. So I wasn’t the least bit surprised that she stole the thunder of the twenty-nine other contenders for the most coveted Miss Universe Philippines 2021 crown.

After all, what would you expect from the most sought-after AD protégée with thirteen years of being under Dexter Alazas’s wing, alongside the following: Karla Paula Henry (Miss Earth 2008 and Miss Philippines Earth 2008), Angeli Dione Gomez (Miss Tourism International 2013 and Mutya Ng Pilipinas Tourism 2013), Kris Tiffany Janson (Miss Intercontinental 2014 second runner-up and Binibining Pilipinas Intercontinental 2014), Verna “Verns” Buckley (Supermodel of the World 2002 finalist and Supermodel of the World Philippines 2002 winner), Jam Charish Libatog (Miss Tourism International 2008 finalist and Mutya Ng Pilipinas Tourism International 2008), Sharon Grace Angel (Mutya Ng Pilipinas Top Model of the World 2010), Rogelie Catacutan (Binibining Pilipinas Supranational 2015), and others?

Bea Gomez’s exposure to modeling and even hosting events such as (among others) the Ginoong Pilipinas Cebu 2019 search which was won by the face of AD Models Philippines Homme Erik Lennart Visser (who eventually won the Ginoong Pilipinas Mister Universe Tourism 2019 title in Manila) proved to have gone a long way towards holding the microphone and speaking her mind and heart out during the crucial Q and A that must’ve made the judges’ task that pageant night easier to choose our delegate to the Miss Universe 2021 competition.

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