The People’s Choice Award online voting, a part of Ms Cultural World and Ms TCC 2018 held last October in Hong Kong has given the opportunity for the winner, Ms Sheryl Valderama, to be reconnected with her family in the Philippines. It is a big contrast to the recent issue that pageants among OFWs in Hong Kong are being discouraged due to an incident that exposed candidates. Pageants, if organised professionally and responsibly, are good community events. It is an expression of art. However, there are also organisers who have no clear direction and knowledge of what really pageant is meant to be. Organising a pageant needs right attitude, discipline and professionalism.
TCC-United Kingdom, also known as British-Filipino Foundation, the working arm of TCC in England, sponsored this online voting competition, although the actual pageant is an event hosted by TCC-Hong Kong and was held at Pier 10, Central Hong Kong on November 04, 2018. The online competition aimed to build reconnections between the candidates and their families, as well as their relatives and friends. TCC-UK understands the difficulty of OFWs working in a foreign land and being separated from their families for years. It then sponsored the creation of the People’s Choice Award component of the competition.
The mechanics of the competition was simply for candidates to gain votes on their photo presentations posted on TCC’s Facebook Page as well as on it’s website. The 3 candidates with the highest votes were given prizes as follows: People’s Choice Award, Php5K; 1st Runner Up, Php3K; and 2nd Runner Up, Php2K. All these prizes were awarded to the candidates as cash but were specifically intended to be spent for family dinner or for recreations of their family and loved ones in the Philippines.
During the online competition, each candidate have spent their effort in convincing their family, relatives and friends to vote for them. It has also been noted that some of the candidates, most especially the winners, have been helped by their families and relatives as well friends in campaigning for them. Thru this, the reconnection between them has been established. Although it was thru a virtual experience for Sheryl as she is in Hong Kong, it still rekindled their familial relationship.
As to the People’s Choice Award winner, Ms Sheryl Valderama, a native of Tadian, Mt Province, members of her family and relatives travelled from Pangasinan, La union, and Mt. Province to met each other and celebrate her win. Truly, thru the said competition, she was able to gather them at a very private and special occasion, and more importantly, for her to be reconnected to them.
Script from Ms Sheryl:
Here is my family dinner. Thank you again and again TCC for organising the show, thank you Bhowan Moon for the encouragement, and to my friends and cousins who helped me on the online voting, that even though we were very much sleepy and tired at work , still, you helped me campaign… thank you! To TCC-UK, thank you for sponsoring this family dinner.. my family enjoyed it a lot that they were so happy and forgot to take a group picture as I have told them… Sir Greg, too, thank you…
Ms. Irish Ticagan, the 1st Runner Up, also native of Tadian, Mt Province, will be sending her family to claim her award during TCC’s Concert for Life 27 on December 14 to be held at La Trinidad Municipal Gym. Ms Girlie Villamena, the 2nd Runner-Up, hailing from Nueva Vizcaya, has already claimed her prize in Hong Kong as her family are not able to travel to Baguio to claim her prize from Sir Gregorio Taag, Chairman of TCC-Philippines. Both families of winners are expected to have their family dinners, too.
The event successfully gained it’s objectives. The actual pageant, Ms Cultural World 2018 and Ms TCC 2018 not only featured and promoted the waved crafts of TCC’s event partner, Inabe Handwoven Crafts, owned by Ms Zefora Bosongan of Bauko, Mt Province but it helped TCC create awareness and fundraise for its four charity objectives: Relief of poverty; advancement of education; protection of health, and the preservation of culture, arts and heritage. The event was graced by Ms Lou Gabiola, Manager of Le Chef, The Manor, Camp John Hay; Spouses Dr Ruth Taguiling and Atty Jas Taguiling; and Sir Gregorio Taag, Benguet State University Professor and Chairman of TCC-Philippines; who all travelled all the way from the Philippines for the event.
Thru the event, TCC-Hong Kong was able to raise funds that helped TCC-Philippines with it’s relief operations for the victims of Typhoons Ompong and Rosita in the Cordilleras.
THE CORDILLERA CONNECTION 