The ‘most likely’ Mutya winners

Controversy has been hounding beauty contests lately, with title-holders being stripped of their crowns due to, well, negligence of duty, the latest being Miss Earth (from Bosnia and Herzegovina) who was replaced by first runner-up Miss Kenya.

The two-year-old Miss Earth search is homegrown, produced by Carousel Productions which also handles the Miss Philippines contest, the winner of which represents the country in the Miss Earth finals (participated in by more than 40 countries).

The coincidence is that Lorraine Schuck, one of the brains behind the Miss Philippines/Miss Earth searches, used to be one of those behind the Mutya ng Pilipinas contest, whose winner competes in the other homegrown international beauty contest, the Asia-Pacific Quest.

The Miss Philippines was chosen a few weeks ago while the 2003 Mutya ng Pilipinas will be picked by 11 judges in glittering ceremonies tonight at the AFP Theater, to be covered live by GMA 7 (starting at 9 o’clock) which is now the organizer of the Mutya/Miss Asia-Pacific contests.

It won’t be a surprise if past and future Mutya winners end up as GMA talents. Mutya, just like other beauty contests, is also a rich source of showbiz material (Rio Diaz-Cojuangco was a Mutya winner in 1977).

Twenty-four hopefuls are competing for the Mutya title, coming from the National Capital Region and Southern Luzon, Mindanao and Northern Luzon.

Funfare asked an "insider" to pick out the "most likely" winners and she came up with eight (one-third of the batch).

(E-mail reactions at [email protected])