Newly-crowned Miss Asia Pacific International Isabela Fernandes of Brazil will stay in the Philippines a bit longer, along with her runners-up, to get some much-needed rest after the competition.
During the victory press conference held at Rosa Restaurant at the K1 Center by Prestige Bay in Parañaque City on Oct. 11, the organizers said the five top finishers will be having a two-week-long vacation in the Philippines.
The announcement was a much-deserved respite for the ladies, whose pageant journey was jolted by a destructive earthquake in Cebu where much of the activities took place, including the final competition.
On the ladies’ first day in Cebu on Sept. 30, the Benefit Gala Night at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Cebu City came to an abrupt end just as the program was about to close because the tremor shook the venue.
Because of the calamity that struck one of the biggest events of this year’s pageant season, the organizers realigned the ladies’ activities to stand in solidarity with those affected by the magnitude 6.9 earthquake, that traced its epicenter in Bogo City in northern Cebu.
For four straight days after the earthquake struck, the delegates engaged in relief missions, including the packing of goods at the Cebu Province warehouse, and distributing aid to the towns of Daanbantayan, Medellin, and San Remigio near Bogo City.
They also engaged in workshops to improve the condition of their mental health, process everything that they had gone through, and prepare them for the upcoming activities.
The final competition show held at the Cebu Coliseum on Oct. 8 also dedicated a moment of silence for those who perished because of the quake, with a video presentation of the ladies’ relief activities flashing on screen. The moment brought some of the delegates to tears. Afterwards, the members of the pageant’s board of directors and executive committee handed out tokens of appreciation to all the ladies on stage, glass lanterns with roses and fairy lights inside that symbolize their love, resilience, and rebirth.
After the coronation night, Fernandes and her runners-up, including the Philippines’ Anita Rose Gomez who finished second overall, faced members of the media in Cebu, to make up for the cancelled press presentation originally scheduled the day after the earthquake struck.
They then headed back to Manila to recharge before embarking on a two-week-long tour of different tourist destinations in the Philippines. Currently, the ladies are in Boracay, hailed as one of the best beaches in the world.
Joining Fernades and Gomez are second runner-up Boronwat Maneerat of Thailand, third runner-up Jana Janssens of Belgium, fourth runner-up Delilah Elmira Wildeboer of the Netherlands, and New Zealand’s Hannah Leigh Cross, Continental Queen of Oceania and Miss Sheridan. /edv