{"id":77521,"date":"2016-06-19T03:03:07","date_gmt":"2016-06-19T07:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=77521"},"modified":"2016-06-19T03:04:25","modified_gmt":"2016-06-19T07:04:25","slug":"miss-philippines-earth-reveals-victim-pageant-bullying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/06\/19\/miss-philippines-earth-reveals-victim-pageant-bullying\/","title":{"rendered":"Miss Philippines-Earth reveals being a \u2018victim of pageant bullying\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Miss<\/a>
Miss Philippines-Earth 2016 Imelda Bautista Schweighart (middle)
(Photo: Miss Philippines-Earth Facebook page<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA \u2013 Miss Philippines-Earth 2016 Imelda Bautista Schweighart knew very well how \u2018everybody hated her\u2019 \u2013 at least the 45 other aspirants she bested in the recently concluded beauty pageant held at the UP Theatre in Quezon City.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a victim of pageant bullying. There were vicious women in the pageant. Everybody hated me,\u201d Schweighart said in an Inquirer.net report. \u201cI lost my pageant heels, foundation, and my only eye-shadow palette. Someone got those before coronation night.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m surprised they went missing because I\u2019m a very organized person. They were stolen, and my fellow candidates didn\u2019t help,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Being the front-runner in the preliminary pageant competitions, the 21-year-old Filipino-German beauty queen from Palawan saw how the other candidates were not delighted with her winning in the pre-pageant swimsuit, cocktail wear and evening gown competitions, and receiving corporate titles Miss Pontefino Residences, Miss Ever Bilena and Darling of the Press.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re pulling me down,\u201d she said in the same report, adding that she fell ill prior the closed-door preliminary selection after taking a \u2018brain booster\u2019 she received from a fellow contestant.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe told me it\u2019s a brain booster. That\u2019s what\u2019s written on the bottle. It smelled like eucalyptus\u2026 I trusted the girl who gave it to me, so I took it before I entered the room. But it made my sinuses act up and gave me a sore throat\u2026 I even got a toothache and I felt pain all over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not having the support of fellow aspirants, Schweighart recalled how the mudslinging leading to the final moments of the pageant was so hard for her. But refusing to be defeated, she found strength from former titleholders who also experienced pageant bullying.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just focused\u2026 I traveled from Puerto Princesa to represent my city and bring home the crown. And it\u2019s our first time to win; Palawan deserves it,\u201d she shared.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I confided to Ate Jamie (Herrell, Miss Earth 2014), she said the same thing happened to her. She told me, \u2018When I started in the competition, I had 24 swimsuits with me. By the time the pageant ended, I only had four left\u2026 and my heels also went missing.\u2019 And Ate Angelia (Ong, Miss Earth 2015) told me she also experienced bullying abroad,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

Now proclaimed as the new reigning queen, Schweighart is determined to brush it all off.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose bullies were psyching me, to weaken me; but I didn\u2019t give in. I had to kill the demons and survive,\u201d she said emphatically. \u201cI hope you (fellow candidates) find yourselves in a place where you can be healed from the past hurt. Find forgiveness and peace.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA \u2013 Miss Philippines-Earth 2016 Imelda Bautista Schweighart knew very well how \u2018everybody hated her\u2019 \u2013 at least the 45 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":77522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,46],"tags":[11298,11297],"class_list":["post-77521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-entertainment-ph","tag-imelda-bautista-schweighart","tag-miss-philippines-earth-2016","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77521","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=77521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}