Filipino Pride entails Beauty or Talent?

Efren “Bata” Reyes, Professional pool player who garnered 70 international titles, Paeng Nepomoceno, a
six-time world ten pin bowling champion, Manny Pacquiao, the only eight-division world champion in
the history of boxing, Lea Salonga, singer and actress who won the Olivier and Theatre World Awards,
and is the first Asian woman to win a Tony Award. These are only few of the many Filipinos who give
pride to the Philippines. Everyone were amazed and is looking up to them, but that was back then, not
until Miss Universe 2015, Pia Wurtzbach stole the spotlight and make the whole world applaud to her.
Right then, talent and skills were defeated by women’s beauty.

In the history of pageantry, the Philippines had already bagged 14 crowns, three Miss Universe crowns
(1969, 1973, 2015), one Miss World crown (2013), six Miss International crowns (1964, 1970, 1979,
2005, 2013, 2016) and four Miss Earth crowns (2008, 2014, 2015, 2017). These crowns awaken the
Filipino’s craze and competitiveness among beauty pageants.

Indeed, the beauty of the Filipinos are outrageous and unique, but so is their talents and skills. Now,
which is more influential character that entails the pride of the Filipinos? Beauty or Talent?

Walking gracefully and portraying the beauty of our country takes courage and confidence. Sports, arts,
and music takes hard work and passion. But a single Filipino cannot be versatile and attain all the talents
and skills. We all have different characteristics and specialty. A music lover might not be interested in
boxing. A boxer might not be interested in pool and same goes with the bowling players or the singers.
But let’s admit it we are all interested in beauty. And we look up to the beautiful people and make them
a standard for people’s physical appearances.

But Filipino’s are more than just beautiful. We have astonishing talents to be proud of and people must
not focus on beauty alone. Beauty must not come before talents and talents must not come before
beauty. It must be equal and balance. These two are our edge to the other country and two is way more
better than one. It means more power, more achievements and more pride for us.

A lot of Filipino had already taken the name of our country to the top. And all of it is worth being
recognized and celebrated. Let us not be biased and just support everyone who takes the name of our
country in every international competition they are joining or else, our talented and beautiful Filipinos
might feel unfair and lose their passion. They might think that what they are doing for the country does
not matter to their fellow countrymen at all. And that all their hard works are not even appreciated. If
you cannot represent our country in any competition abroad then at least support them sincerely. On
top of it, Filipinos are beautiful and talented. That is who we are.