The Quest begins: Miss Cebu 2012's official dozen

CEBU, Philippines - It’s always been an interesting wait to find out which faces – whetherfresh or already familiar in the local pageant/modeling scene – will this time vie for a chance to wear Cebu’s most prestigious crown, and in the process become part of the city’s history of stellar pageant beauties.

The highly-anticipated annual search for the Queen City of the South’s fairest officially began with a press presentation of the Miss Cebu 2012 candidates at the Waterfront Hotel. Not surprisingly, we yet again have a handful of Nursing students/graduates in the roster (five to be exact), while four in the group took up Mass Communications courses.

This year’s winner, Mia Zeeba Ali Faridoon, is a UP Cebu MassCom major herself, and there are two UP MassCom alumni in this batch who could possibly be another source of pride for the state university’s Humanities department if the stars work in their favors.

Media guests took turns throwing questions at the 12 candidates during the open forum ranging from their thoughts on the Reproductive Health Bill (all were pro), perks of being beautiful, their personal advocacies, and whether they believed in love at first sight. While some at times mouthed off quite lengthily (short and sweet normally does it) and lost the audience in the quite large venue as a result, the ladies hurdled this first public presentation with more than a passing grade.

A whirlwind of pre-pageant activities await the finalists including personality development workshops, public speaking seminars, community outreach activities, culture/heritage tours and media appearances. These were prepared by the Cebu City Tourism Commission and Cebu City Tourism Foundation, Inc. to equip the participants with the right kind of skills and understanding of Cebu’s culture and heritage, so that they become effective and genuine Cebuana ambassadors to the world.

Coronation night will be on January 11, 2012, a Wednesday, at the Pacific Grand Ballroom of Waterfront Hotel. It will be telecast live over Studio 23 and video streamed online through the website cebucitytourism.com.