Last May 17, Conversations featured Aurora Pijuan as a nod to her 50th anniversary as the country’s first Binibini to win Miss International, after Gemma Cruz (1964) who was sponsored by Boystown.
It was also in 1970 when Alice Crisostomo was crowned Mutya ng Pilipinas during the pageant’s third edition. Her court included Jean Altavas, Mutya ng Luzon; Jocelyn Causapin, Mutya ng Visayas; and Arlene Balmadrid, Mutya ng Mindanao. Seventeen aspirants competed in the search.
Then 19, Alice hails from Malolos, Bulacan, where she was discovered by couturier Romy Lopez at a party in a nearby town, Plaridel. Romy coaxed her to join the Mutya pageant. Two years earlier, Alice reigned as Miss Normal School at the University of Santo Tomas where she was second vice-president of the student council.
A few weeks after she won Mutya, Alice finished first runner-up to India’s Zeenat Aman in the 1970 Miss Asia Quest held at the Araneta Coliseum on Aug. 22. Other runners-up were Carolyn Dartnell of Australia, second; Yvonne Young, third; and Geraldine Welford, New Zealand. Zeenat was also voted as Miss Photogenic by accredited photographers. Adjudged Miss Friendship was Irma Hardisurya of Indonesia and Best Talent was Linda Soo Lin of Malaysia. Fifteen beauties competed. The 13-man judges (six Filipinos and seven foreigners) chaired by Senator Sergio Osmeña, Jr. had to break the tie between Zeenat and Alice.
Like other beauty titlists, Alice couldn’t resist the lure of showbiz. She starred in The Golden Child, directed by Armando de Guzman for Tagalog Ilang-Ilang Productions (TIIP), with Snooky (title role) and Tony Ferrer (Antonio Laxa in real life) who courted her. Barely a year after the movie’s release (in May 1971), they got married. Alice didn’t pursue her showbiz career.
The couple has two children, Falcon (named after his dad’s screen persona Tony Falcon Agent X-44) and Mutya (named after the pageant) who would repeat history 20 years later by winning Mutya ng Pilipinas Asia Pacific in 1990, the same year she won first runner-up in the Bb. Pilipinas pageant.
Two disasters hit the country, a 7.8 earthquake and the Mt. Pinatubo eruption, preventing Mutya from competing in that year’s Miss Asia Pacific Quest. In 1992, she finally did and placed second runner-up to Israel’s Tali Ben-Harush.
Like her mom, Mutya joined showbiz but didn’t stay long. — With a report from Celso de Guzman Caparas
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