Beauty is only skin-deep

The question of whether we should host the Miss Universe beauty contest has come up again. This column disagrees with those who hold that this is good for the country because of the money and publicity it will bring in. It is not money alone that we should consider in holding beauty contests but something less obvious. It has to do with the trivialization of more important values and attitudes. Beauty is only skin-deep especially if they have to parade in skimpy swimsuits. There is something sinister in holding the Miss Universe contest in the Philippines so soon after the victory of a President who has championed change that puts the country in a level of higher values. It douses ambition and determination of our people after the difficult struggle to achieve reform and shape a better country. It puts us back into nonsense and the superficial instead of developing women as pillars of our society.

Look at the world around us and you will find that serious countries do not hold beauty contests for the sake of money. They just don’t do that anymore because it degrades women being paraded like cattle when their talents can make a difference in nationbuilding. There are better ways to make money than from beauty contests that immediately connotes the inferiority of women. Without saying so, this is what it implies – the value of women comes from having beautiful faces and nicely shaped bodies. It has become the ambition of young girls to become beauty queens instead of developing their minds and their capacity for leadership.

I am not surprised that DOT Secretary, a woman, should push for it. She is herself a victim of the culture.

Neither do I buy the reason that it will be good to hold the Miss Universe contest here to celebrate the political breakthrough of electing “a president who comes from Mindanao, and our Miss Universe is from Mindanao, so I think this is the best time for us to do the Miss Universe here in the Philippines,” she said. It trivializes the meaning of the giant step we have taken to be just and fair to our troubled Muslim community.

And lastly the present Miss Universe may be a Filipina but she should not be put at the same level with our President who is head of state. He has better things to do with his time and more problems to cope with than discuss hosting the next Miss Universe contest.

The Philippines may not be spending a single centavo for the beauty contest, but it is losing more, so much more in values. With Duterte’s victory we should be seen as a serious nation, ready to take off socially and economically to feed and educate its hungry millions, especially its women. 

There are so many more things we can do for our tourism. For example, I am told by foreign travel agents that they envy the Philippines with historical sites that they do not have – like the Walled City of Intramuros. 

What developed country holds beauty contests to commemorate a political triumph. According to a report this is the third time the Philippines has done so. No it is not the money that we object to but the thwarting of noble values that beauty contests encourage.

The former First Lady, Imelda Matcos misses the point of the book about her trial in New York. She told some reporters that she was acquitted in that trial. I have written an entire book “The Verdict” to explain the decision. The acquittal is not what she wants it to appear but you have to read the book in its entirely to understand both why the case was tried in New York and why she was acquitted by a non-Filipino jury.

By writing the book I hoped to go into the structure of the plot, what led to the case and why she was accused and then acquitted. “The Verdict” connects the elements of her life story and the court trial into a single story.

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I am sorry that I missed attending the event commemorating Domingo Franco and La Liga Filipina. I received the invitation from Christopher Diaz Bonoan. I never even knew nor heard about Domingo Franco and his connection to La Liga Filipina. He is a forebear of Celia Diaz Laurel. This is from an articles written by Madonna M. Dimaano of UPL.

“Domingo Franco ( (1856-1897) was a Bagumbayan martyr. The outbreak of the French Revolution greatly influenced some liberal Spaniards, who organized Masonic societies in the Philippines with “liberty, equality and fraternity” as a rallying cry. These attracted many young men. Domingo Franco was initiated in the Nilad Lodge.

Afterwards, he transferred to the Balagtas Lodge, a branch of El Gran Oriente Español, and the mother organization in Madrid. He became “venerable master,” and was conferred the 18th degree,.

Most of the Filipino propagandists who were seeking reforms from Spain during that time were Masons.

Franco and Rizal wrote each other regularly while the latter was taking his licentiate in medicine in Spain. Whenever Rizal was in the country, the two of them would meet to discuss the current affairs of Philippine society. When Rizal formulated the guiding principles of La Liga Filipina in Hongkong, he entrusted Franco with the document containing these for safekeeping and dissemination in Manila.

On July 3,1896, La Liga Filipina was formally organized in the house of Doroteo Onjungco on Calle Ylaya in Tondo. In that gathering, its Supreme Council, headed by Franco, was created.

The other members were Numeriano Adriano, Apolinario Mabini and Moises Salvador.

Franco chose “Felipe Leal” as his alias in the Liga – the name that fellow Liga member Apolinario Mabini used when referring to him in his letters to Marcelo H. del Pilar.

Franco lived up to his assumed name. He remained loyal to the reformist cause until his death on Jan. 11, 1897 at Bagumbayan Field where, together with 12 others, a squad of Filipino soldiers shot him. These patriots were to be remembered only as “Los trece martires de Bagumbayan.”