In focus: Binibining Tuburan

Should this reigning Miss Tuburan Tourism extend her winning streak and clinch the Bb. Cebu crown, she plans to push her advocacy “to preserve, take care and develop our rich and abundant environment and natural resources.”

Says Monique, who is also a Miss Tuburan 2014 second runner-up and Miss CNU 2015 first runner-up: “Aside from promoting tourism in Cebu, as a province I also want to implement well our environmental laws in order to preserve, take care, and nurture the beautiful and various tourist destinations all over Cebu, especially in each municipality and city.”

Reading books, writing poems, watching investigative and documentary stories are Monique’s cup of tea.

As a communication major at Cebu Normal University who’s had a glimpse of life at the media industry, Monique shared her thoughts on the eligibility of bloggers to cover presidential events as long as they have at least 5,000 followers despite not having foundations in journalism.

“We have the freedom of speech, freedom of information,” she begins, “and I think if a certain blogger deeply knows the pros and cons, the ethics of being a vanguard of truth, then I don’t see any problem regarding coverage or covering presidential events or any kind of activity which meets the concern of the public as long as they’re being neutral and they stick on nothing but the truth.”

According to Monique, she is related to Gen. Arcadio Maxilom who has an entire avenue dedicated to him for being a hero in the country’s revolution against the Spanish and then the Americans. Sharing a bloodline with someone so important in Cebu’s history has been a great source of pride for her.

“It’s a motivation to do and work well knowing that I have within me the ancestral and heroic blood of Gen. Maxilom,” quips the daughter of insurance agents.

“He may be forgotten by millenials, but we cannot deny the fact that he’s part of our past, present and even in the future generations. And even if it happened that he’s not one of my ancestors, I will always be proud of the great Gen. Arcadio Maxilom as a Tuburanon.”

And while she can definitely brag about products and places found in Tuburan, she is proudest of its inhabitants. “It is given that Tuburan is abundant and rich in natural resources, specifically springs, alluring tourist spots and destinations, but we, the Tuburanons give off the most important characteristic of Tuburan. The hospitable people, though it may sound cliché, is the most valuable asset of Tuburan.” (FREEMAN)