Half-Filipina Miss New Zealand comes home to Baguio

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – New Zealand’s bet – half Filipina Tanya Dawson – together with her Filipino mother, family, friends, and supporters from San Vicente in Sta Maria town in Pangasinan, lined up the streets of Baguio City during the Panagbenga Flower Festival yesterday to support her. 

The 24-year-old beauty’s mother, Margarita Palabay Pelenda, 54, who came back to the country and the city, described Tanya as kind, industrious, and smart. 

“As a child, Tanya,” she narrated, was not the kind of girl that is going to show business. She liked farming, Pelenda said, since their family, back in New Zealand, owns a huge farm. 

But as Tanya grew up, her mom saw her potential to become a beauty queen. “I encouraged her to join beauty contests because she’s beautiful and she will make it.”

In 2014, Tanya was named Miss Teen Universe. She was also a supermodel in New Zealand. She was crowned Miss New Zealand Universe in 2016. She is also into film, being a theater teacher by profession.

“It’s God’s best blessing to her,”  Margarita said, as she brandished a tarpaulin of her girl’s photograph at Burnham Park in 2012. Actually, she confided, she met Tanya’s father in Baguio City.

“We’re very proud of her,” said Mayor Domogan of the very rare occasion of hosting Miss Universe bets, including Miss New Zealand, who traces her roots to Baguio City and Pangasinan.