After Janina San Miguel made a revelation about the dark side of beauty pageants, another beauty queen, Miss Multinational 2017 Sophia Senoron, revealed her own pageant harassment experience.
In an interview with Nelson Canlas on 24 Oras, Sophia revealed that she also received indecent proposals.
“People just think that women are easy targets. And it’s a terrible, terrible narrative. No matter where you are in the world, ganun ‘yung perspective.”
Sophia even said that it will really come to a point that you’ll give up your dreams in pageantry,
“If you feel unsafe… mag-iiba ka talaga. You’ll walk away from your dream which might be the most heartbreaking thing.”
This wasn’t the first time a Filipina beauty queen shared what went on behind the scenes. Janina San Miguel revealed how they were subjected to indecent proposals in a video interview with Channel News Asia’s Undercover Asia.
Janina told Channel News Asia how she was offered P25 million in exchange for a relationship and P3 million for a one-night stand.
“The biggest thing I was offered was bahay, condo, car, everything,” Sophia shared. “Ang makapal pa ‘yung mukha is hindi pa sa akin diniretso, sa nanay ko.”
Janina, who resigned as the Philippine representative for the 2008 Miss World pageant, revealed that she even had an offer of marriage.
“Sabi niya sa akin, ‘Huwag ka na lang mag-aral, mag-asawa ka na lang,’ sabi niyang ganun, so parang nag-o-offer ng marriage, ganun.”
The National Director of Miss World Philippines, Arnold Vegafria, said that they are taking action to ensure that their contestants are safe from harassment.
“Everywhere they go, they’re always with chaperones, and some of them, especially the young ones, ni-re-require ko ‘yung family nila or ‘yung parents nila to be present there.”
