MANILA, Philippines — Although she has never met her Palestinian father, newly crowned Binibining Pilipinas Universe 2019 Gazini Ganados thanked him for being a part of her success.
In an Instagram post on Independence Day, Gazini expressed her gratitude to everyone who helped her succeed, including her dad.
“MAAYONG HAPON!! I Still Can't Believe It! Cebuanos We Made It!! First, let me give thanks to the almighty Father for bringing me this far and giving me the strength, courage, faith and the DETERMINATION to succeed,” she said.
She also thanked her mother and her father and called them her “guardian angel nanay and tatay.”
“To my guardian angel nanay and tatay. It is with deepest appreciation and sincere gratitude to say thank you,” she said.
Born Gazini Christiana Jordi Ganados, the Filipino-Palestinian beauty told the press in earlier interviews that part of her mission to become a beauty queen is to travel to see her father, whom she has never met.
“I don’t know if he is still alive. I’m hoping for the best. He’s a Palestinian. I just wanna go there and try to look for him,” Manila Bulletin quoted her as saying.
“I heard a lot of good stories about Palestines. They have good food. Who knows? I would bump into him.”
If she would ever meet her father, she said: "I would give him a hug. I would thank him for the genes because without him, I wouldn’t be here... I’d be joyful. That would be the happiest day of my life."
The Cebuana who represented Talisay, Cebu in the pageant grew up with her grandparents, which is why she advocates for elderly care.
During the pageant’s Question and Answer round, Gazini emphasized her advocacy.
“If I win the crown tonight, what I do is to promote my advocacy,” she enthused.
“My advocacy is for us women to fight for our rights and for the elderly women and for us to know that someone is loving us, someone is pushing us to whatever ambitions that we have. We will be able to rise from our decisions, to whatever dreams that we have, goals that we have, and we will achieve it because of those values, those wisdoms that they gave us. Thank you.”
Apart from God and her parents, she also thanked her “prayer warriors,” composed of supporters, family, friends and her training camp, Kagandahang Flores.
Likewise, she is thankful to her sisters at the training camp who also won titles during the pageant: Bb. Pilipinas-Supranational 2019 Resham Saeed of Maguindanao, Bb. Pilipinas-Intercontinental 2019 Emma Mary Tiglao of Pampanga, and Bb. Pilipinas 2019 2nd Runner-up Samantha Mae Bernardo of Palawan.
“CONGRATULATIONS! You did it, I did it, we all did it !! We are all WINNERS,” she said.