Kapuso beauties win model awards

MANILA, Philippines - Mariana del Rio, Bianca Paz and Gwen Ruais made the Philippines proud by winning at the Fifth Asian Supermodel competition held in Nanning, China from Aug. 21 to Sept. 3.

Mariana emerged third runner-up competing counterparts from India, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Korea, Japan, China and Mongolia. Bianca and Gwen also gave the country honor by bagging Miss Photogenic and Best Runway Walk awards, respectively.

The three were in China for almost two weeks for the pictorials, media interviews and other pre-pageant activities. During finals night, they wore gowns by Francis Libiran, Jonty Martinez and Ramon Sabella.

The Filipino supermodels are also tapped to grace the IMF’10 fashion show in Malaysia next month.

GMA Artist Center (GMAAC) head Ida Henares selected  and accompanied this year’s delegates to the Asian Supermodel contest. Note that Henares is the first ever Filipino judge in the competition dominated by representatives from founding countries China, Korea and Japan and is a member of Asian Model Association. 

 In 2008, Henares also steered the GMAAC delegates Rhian Ramos, Stephanie Henares and Arci Muñoz into clinching key awards in the tilt. Ramos and Henares made it to the Top 10 Supermodel category; Muñoz won the International Friendship Award; and Ramos bagged the Miss Vitality special award.

Joining Henares as judge were Toh Shin Woo, chairman of Korea Model Center International; Momose Kyo, director of Japan Modeling Agencies Association; Suzuki Seiji, CEO of Japan Oscar Promotion Co., Ltd.; Kim Ulia, a Korean supermodel; Sun Jianying, a famed journalist and TV producer in China; and Jiang Hao, director of Tencent Internal Portal Department.

The Asian Supermodel competition is an annual event sponsored by the China Fashion Designers Association and the China Bentley Culture Development Co., Ltd.,  the biggest and respectable modeling and management companies in Asia having produced prestigious modeling contests and beauty pageants for years now.

The contest is broadcast on Guangxi TV and seen by about 60 million viewers in China alone.