Puerto Galera's divas bring in the crowds

MANILA, Philippines –  The nine stunning sirens of Mikko’s Bar keep the White Beach crowds begging for more Friday through Sunday.

The closest thing Puerto Galera will ever get to a Tina Turner or Beyonce concert is standard fare at this popular bar, at the beach resort renowned for its top rate impersonators and entertainers.

But there’s something which separates these divas from those they impersonate: a Y chromosome.

These sultry ladies were actually born boys.

Diva queens

Queen diva Michelle San Miguel (Michael Villamuva), 33, is the longest-serving performer, having worked at Mikko’s Bar for six years. She helped transform the joint into a bar which served cold beer and dabbled in performance, to a bar which serves hot entertainment with beer on the side.

She holds the respect of her fellow divas as intensely as she holds the gaze of her mesmerized audience, while flaunting her way across the stage to Tina Turner, Madonna, or Jennifer Hudson.  

The girls respond with a chorus of “Michelle, Michelle” when asked who the leader of the pack is.

“She’s the diva queen,” Joanne (Joamma Atienza), 28, says.

Others point to her acting and impersonation talent. Michelle has an undeniable presence during her routines which send up the onstage diva drama, and are interspersed with bawdy, comedic movements and expressions.

As a schoolboy, she always liked drama class and dreamed of being a performer.

“I use (my drama skills) here, I love my work, I love the way I perform, I love (giving) entertainment to the people.”

It is the energy she draws from a buzzing crowd, she says, which means she produces dazzling performances night after night, even with a 5 a.m. bedtime.

And the crowds love watching the ladies at work, with locals and tourists alike flocking to the beachside entertainment after sundown.

Maridol, from Davao City, says the entertainment here makes White Beach a better resort than Boracay.

“In Davao there are a lot of comedy bars, but this one is very good.”

Lifestyle

The divas, who all live together in staff accommodations, have a routine to their days.

They wake mid-afternoon, do a few hours’ rehearsal, then head to Mikko’s where they begin waitressing – and carefully layering on coats of make-up — in the early evening.

During weekdays waitressing is the sole gig, but come the weekend the pearls and heels are out in full force. 

The fashion guru is Beyonce, whose style they emulate shopping in Batangas City or at the Mall of Asia on a Manila shopping spree.

Dieting is off the agenda, and the girls say they try to eat normally, though the late hours can mess with their eating patterns.

While they earn a tidy sum in the tourist season, times are harder in quieter periods as their base wage is that of a waitress.

The girls take their only holidays in the three-month period in the middle of the year, but aside from that generally work seven-day weeks.

Most send money home to family, though they do not often get home to visit. That’s why the camaraderie amongst the girls is so important, they say.

“We feel like family,” Joanne says.

Love

As with any mob of females, boys are a popular topic. All the ladies have had boyfriends – mostly foreigners – but their schedules and island lifestyle make it hard to maintain offshore romances.

Westerners are the flavor of choice, in particular Germans and Americans who are abundant on the island.

Joanne will have been together with her German boyfriend for one year come January. The pair met on the island and were together for three months before he flew out. She is now holding out until January for him to visit again, but hopes eventually she will join him in Germany where they can get a civil union.

“(He makes me) feel like a woman. There’s a noticeable difference between European and Filipino men,” she says.

“It’s really a big difference because the culture of white guys (is) more straightforward but Filipinos are more emotional and sensitive.”

Dimples (Nino Sanchez), 29, has been with her Filipino boyfriend for eight years. He works in Manila, performing at a bar, and they see each other once every two weeks.

“It’s okay, we have trust in each other,” she says.

While it can be tough, they are both earning money in their current jobs but are planning their lives together and even want to adopt children.

“His family knows me and my family knows him.”

But other ethnicities, such as Iranians and Japanese men, also feature.

“They like acting conservative, but they’re doing it secretly,” Nikki (Basar Albaani), 23, says.

And as far as their taste in men goes, they ladies are “afamista” – meaning they are interested in straight, not gay, men.

“When there are other guys coming in they all think we are real girls and when they find out we’re lady-boys they are confused (because) they’re really attracted to us,” Nikki says.

“If we really like the guys and we know that they’re straight, and we know they won’t like us, we make our voices like girls’.”

Sooner or later though, the lady-boys must come clean, she says.

“Sometimes they’re okay with it and sometimes they’re not.”

Ambition

The girls are good at what they do, and know it better, they say, than any real girl could ever be.

“We don’t accept (real girls at the bar), it}s exclusively for lady-boys, because we’re better than girls,” Joanne says.

“We’re more flexible than girls, more creative.

“If a girl wants to start working, no way bitch.”

But being stage queens is not all that life has to offer for these talented girls.

Many would like to go overseas and perform, as they could earn a lot more money abroad, but it is not straightforward.

“It’s hard to get a visa because we’re lady-boys,” Joanne says.

Janima (Randy Panqilinam), 25, who has a routine as Miss Universe runner-up Venus Raj, dreams of becoming a real model.

Others, such as Michelle, want to own their own business one day, taking the talents of the White Beach performers to the rest of the world.

But, for now, as long as the audiences keep asking for more, the girls from Mikko’s Bar will not disappoint.