An unfortunate pageant incident

THE beauty queens from Canada, Guam, and England have all returned to their home countries but they will retain ugly memories in their participation in the recent Miss Earth beauty pageant in Manila.

Jaime Yvonne VandenBerg of Canada, Abbey Anne Gyles-Brown of England, and Emma Mae Sheedy of Guam were at the center of a maelstrom in the pageant when they resorted to social media – Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook – to air their grievances over the management and their complaints against a Filipino businessman they identified as a pageant sponsor, who allegedly harassed the three girls with sexual advances.

The beauties added the hashtag #MeToo in their posts. #MeToo is a campaign organized by American social activist Tarana Burke in 2006 for women to share their rape, sexual assault, and harassment stories through social media. The campaign gained vigorous support in Hollywood, with many popular actresses revealing how top producers, directors, and other film moguls used their power over young women trying to make it in Hollywood.

With the Miss Earth incident, the Philippines became a highlight of the worldwide movement seeking to end gender abuse in society, not only in the movie industry but also in financing, in schools, in sports, in government, in the military, in media, and even in the church.

We urge that more stringent measures be taken by organizers of all competitions and by the Department of Tourism or any other appropriate government agency regulating these pageants so that any harassment of contestants, such as the experiences of the three beauty candidates will be avoided.

Their experience in the Philippines was truly unfortunate. That is now how we treat our women in this country. And it is not how we treat our visitors.

We also send so many of our young Filipina girls to compete in international competitions in other countries and we have won in so many of them. We would not want to have them treated the way our recent visitors from Canada, England, and Guam charged they were treated in Manila.