In focus: Binibining San Francisco, Camotes

CEBU, Philippines — Four years after she placed first runner-up in Miss Cebu 2013, Timay decided to return to pageantry because she “thought it was time to bring forth another learning because stationary knowledge is what I am greatly against.”

Now competing in a pageant of a grander scale, Timay says the challenge of being a Binibining Cebu finalist is rubbing elbows with more experienced candidates.

“This is still my second time in joining a pageant. I still have a lot to learn and I like it that way,” she quips. “A room for improvement, always.”

Timay believes she’s one leg up with the fact that her mother is a head tourism officer, so she most definitely knows how to promote and plan for the development and preservation of an area.

A Nursing graduate from University of Cebu-Banilad, she is currently an ICU nurse at the University of Cebu Medical Center.

“Nurses in the Philippines are underrated,” Timay laments. “That’s the main reason why most of us opt to work abroad and search for greener pastures. If only we are appreciated more and paid at reasonable rates, we’ll always stay with our families, for who doesn’t want that?”

Asked to share the most emotionally stressful experience she’s had as a nurse, Timay recounts: “My first pedia patient died because her parents cannot afford to send her to a more advanced institution for further management. This was when I was working in a public hospital.”

Despite the less than ideal treatment and pay of Filipina nurses in their country, Timay says she keeps on because Nursing is her calling and her vocation.

“San Francisco, Camotes is a place that not a lot of people know where it is located. That’s why I am here to promote this town, not just in the Philippines but across the universe. It is a place where peaceful solitude is incomparable as this is what we need from the stresses of the city,” says this girl who enjoys singing, playing the piano and discovering unfeatured places.

If she could take an infuential person to a trip to San Francisco, Timay says she’ll gladly tag along “Beauty and the Beast” star Emma Watson “as she knows how to appreciate and see the potential of a place. The fine sand of Santiago Bay would lessen her emotional strains. Timubo Cave would definitely give her goosebumps because of the mesmerizing formation of stalagmites and stalactites. Danao Lake, the guitar-shaped water resource, would make her feel carefree. These are just part of the examples of what San Francisco offers.” (FREEMAN)