{"id":272922,"date":"2020-10-25T23:07:47","date_gmt":"2020-10-26T03:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=272922"},"modified":"2020-10-25T23:13:14","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T03:13:14","slug":"ilonggos-rejoice-over-mateos-miss-universe-ph-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/10\/25\/ilonggos-rejoice-over-mateos-miss-universe-ph-victory\/","title":{"rendered":"Ilonggos rejoice over Mateo\u2019s Miss Universe PH victory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FTheMissUniversePH%2Fposts%2F836252107124338&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=552&amp;height=589&amp;appId\" width=\"552\" height=\"589\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>ILOILO CITY<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The llonggo community is one in rejoicing with Rabiya Mateo after she won the Miss Universe Philippines (MUP) 2020 crown Sunday morning.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cThe Ilonggo community is truly proud of her achievement. She is an epitome that Iloilo City can truly level-up and rise above challenges during these times,\u201d Mayor Jerry Tre\u00f1as said.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">In an official statement posted at the city government website, Tre\u00f1as said Mateo \u201cis indeed a phenomenal woman with heartfelt beauty\u201d.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">During the final question and answer portion, Mateo made a remarkable statement when asked if \u201cwhere do pageants stand in this time of crisis.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Mateo said as a candidate, she is \u201cnot just a face of Iloilo City\u201d but she carries \u201chope and as a symbol of light in the darkest times\u201d.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cAs of the moment, I want to help my community. I want to use my strength to make an impact. And that is the essence of beauty pageants; it gives us the power to make a difference,\u201d she said.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">At the height of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, Mateo spent time working with the city government\u2019s Uswag community kitchen that provided food to thousands of front-liners.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Her answer to the first question on whose Filipino image to use if she creates a new paper currency also made waves after choosing former Ilongga senator Miriam Defensor Santiago.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cWhat I admired about her is that she used her knowledge, her voice to serve the country. And I want to be somebody like her, somebody who puts her heart, her passion into action. And after all, she is the best president that we never had,\u201d Mateo said.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Born to an Ilongga mother and an Indian father, Mateo is a licensed physical therapist who graduated cum laude at the Iloilo Doctors\u2019 Hospital.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">She earned the right to represent this highly urbanized city to the prestigious national pageant after winning the title as Miss Iloilo-Universe in this year\u2019s Dinagyang Festival.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Her winning the MUP title also qualified her to represent the Philippines at the Miss Universe beauty pageant.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The first Ilongga to compete in the Miss Universe was Louise Aurelio Vail from this city\u2019s Jaro district, said Ilonggo historian Nereo Lujan, who is also chief of the Public Information and Community Affairs Office (PICAO) of the provincial government.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Lujan said Vail was crowned Binibining Pilipinas in 1965 and represented the country to the Miss Universe pageant in the same year in Miami, Florida, and emerged as one of the 15 semi-finalists.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\ufeff ILOILO CITY\u00a0\u2013 The llonggo community is one in rejoicing with Rabiya Mateo after she won the Miss Universe Philippines &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":272923,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1145,16,46,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-headline","category-news","category-entertainment-ph","category-news-ph","mauthors-perla-lena","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272922"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":272925,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272922\/revisions\/272925"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}