IT'S PAYBACK TIME!

It's payback time! The nation has spoken, and it is now the turn of the candidates who emerged victorious after the May 10 elections to make true on those promises they made during their respective campaign sorties. Promises should never be broken this time with the country and the Filipino people clamoring for genuine change. Let the payback begin on June 30!

But today in PenPoint should be the moment of truth for the latest developments in the local entertainment and media industry. First on my list is the reported “scuffle” between Miss Mandaue 2010 Karina Gajudo and 3rd runner up Sharon Angel that reportedly happened the night after their coronation and on the eve of re-elected mayor Jonas Cortes’ meeting de avance last May 7.

As expected no one from the pageant committee has spoken up to shed light on what really happened, and apparently, Gajudo has been ordered not to grant interviews about the controversy. Well, I only have unconfirmed details about who and what really started the melee, but I’d rather keep them to myself for now pending an investigation reportedly being conducted by the committee. Hopefully, there really is an investigation and it's not just lip service.

I’m looking forward to the truth about a tip I gathered from the grapevine that one of the two ladies involved will be stripped off her title as a consequence for that scandalous incident that has tainted the image of what a beauty-queen should be.

According to my source, the result of the investigation will be revealed after the May 10 elections, and that the sanctions shall be put into effect immediately. Well, the 10th elected councilor of Mandaue has been proclaimed already last Monday and it’s now almost two weeks after the elections, therefore it’s about time that the Miss Mandaue committee shall hand down its decision. If I may have my way, erring beauty queens should be dethroned or stripped off their title. Attention committee chairperson, local beauty-pageant fanatics are waiting for the decision.

Another organization that should make true on its promise is none other than GMA-7. As early as March 2010, network execs said that a new investigative show would replace the successful experiment that was the Visayan Agenda after the elections. Attention GMA 7's Oliver Amoroso, Ann Marie Tan and Zanie Alueta, what is the status now of that in-depth show you promised?

There is one more promise, which I will never forget and is on the record. That is the new lifestyle show which according to GMA-7 will be seen after the elections on a daily basis no less on local TV. What is the status of that now? By the way, MagTV, the Sunday program of ABS-CBN Central Visayas, is really doing well. GMA-7 should not take this development sitting down.

oOo

I bumped into one of Cebu’s top make-up artists Jessie Glova during the Miss Gay Mandaue recently and he briefly discussed with me and designer Jed Sevilla his plan of coming up with a foundation that will take care of Cebu based potential contenders (male, female, gay) for national and international pageants. This will be called, “Rayna Sugbuana” which will scout for potential candidates from the grassroots level, and train them for national pageant competitions such as Bb. Pilipinas, Miss Philippines and Mutya ng Pilipinas. He also mentioned the possibility of sending a Miss Gay candidate to Thailand.

Jessie said this will operate like a foundation. Donations will be coursed through it, because talent scouts will be hired to look for these prospects even in far-flung barangays. The talents who will be discovered will then undergo workshops in catwalk skills, doing photo shoots, communication skills, make-up, among others that would boost their chances of winning a national beauty title. In other words, the foundation can also be considered a beauty school with the discovered talents as its scholars. But Jessie clarified that the foundation will only discover and train talents who will be fielded in various beauty pageants and not for modeling searches.

The plan to establish such a foundation came up because Jessie believes there are still a lot of potential beauty pageant contenders in the various towns of Cebu waiting to be found. He also pointed out that there are a lot of young ladies here in Cebu who are beauty queen material, but do not have the resources should they want to compete in Manila, especially if they do not belong to a modeling agency here. Therefore the making of a successful beauty queen will now depend on the resources of the soon to be founded Rayna Sugbuana Foundation.

Jessie revealed he is now in the process of sending proposals to designers and other shakers and movers in the beauty pageant world for a possible tie-up. In fact he already dropped names of beauty-queens, photographers, and designers who are interested in supporting his plan. Jessie, please keep me posted!

React @ banatentertainment @hotmail.com