Glitches in the Miss Real Estate Philippines 2008

The Philippine Real Estate Festival, touted to be the biggest and grandest real estate event in the Philippines, has just concluded its affairs last Saturday, July 26. The three-day event was held at the SMX Convention Center located inside the Mall of Asia complex in Pasay City.

Overall, the event was a big success. It was spearheaded by Ms. Rose C. Basa, Chairperson and President of Core Spaces International. (Congratulations and thanks for the invite.)

One of the highlights of the event was the staging of the Miss Real Estate Philippines pageant. It's a good experience to witness the “next prestigious beauty pageant “ of the land. The pageant is only on its second run, yet the industry acceptance is overwhelming with prominent and big real estate developers with the likes of Ayala Land, Mega World, Eton Properties, SM Investment, et al. have joined the fray, fielding their own gorgeous and stunning candidates. Likewise, the panel of judges were composed of bigwigs, socialites and VIPs.

From an audience perspective, the show ran smoothly and it's perfect! However, from someone who has an inside crack, it's not. Like any other shows, it also has its own lapses and petty troubles.

First glitch I've noticed was when the judges were introduced one by one, not all of them were mentioned – about two of them, which prompted the host, as instructed by the event organizer, to announce another set of “new” judges after an intermission number. The new batch composed of the two original judges not mentioned in the “initial” roll call, together with the event chairperson and an event director. (Organizers as judges... hhmmm, that's for the record.)

Second glitch happened during the evening gown parade. When host Ariel Ureta announced the name of the first candidate who will enter the stage, no one came out. The music background has long been ended and still no show from the candidate. There might be a miscommunication transpired backstage. Hence, the host jokingly quipped when the candidate finally stepped on the stage that it was a “dramatic entrance”.

Then, the last glitch transpired during the awarding of special awards. The Miss PLDT award went to the “wrong” person, which prompted the event director to scold a show coordinator for not giving the award to the sponsor's bet. Hence, moments later, host Ariel Ureta blurted out “surprise!”, then he mentioned the awarding of another Miss PLDT award with a segue way: “Di ako halata ha (laughs)”. As a result, there were two Miss PLDT awardees. (So, whoever said that business, politics and media don't mix?)

Anyways, since the show started an hour-and-a-half late from its official start time (which is just normal), it's already an hour before midnight and it's not yet finished. Since, I still have some errands to do, I decided not to wait for the announcement of winners. Thus, I could not tell you who won the coveted Miss Real Estate Philippines.

Nonetheless, I have with me some snap shots taken during the show. Just pick your bet and you be the judge!