Photo: From left: 3rd runner-up, Maria Margarita Pereyra; 2nd runner-up, Mary Jane V. Flores; Binibining Bagong Bayani 2019, Cresilda P. Serenado-Avenido; 1st runner-up, Carla Mae J. Palentinos; and 4th runner-up Heyasmin D. Caseres.
DUBAI: A beauty pageant celebrating the lives of Filipino domestic helps was recently held with a mother from Surigao del Sur working in Dubai as household service worker since 2007 winning the title.
Dubbed, “Binibining Bagong Bayani,” the contest, held May 3 at the Pakistani Auditorium near St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Oud Metha, was put together as “a way of making them feel special,” said Alvin Pancito, organizing committee spokesperson.
“Binuo namin ang BB Bagong Bayani upang pasalamatan at bigyan ng kasiyahan ang ating mga kababayan na nagtratrabaho bilang household workers at upang maramdaman nila ay sila ay espesyal at pinapahalagahan,” he said.
“Ang aming adhikain dito ay iparamdam sa ating mga household worker sna sila ay may kakayanan na abutin ang kanilang pangarap kahit gaano kahirap ang buhay dito sa ibang bansa at sila ay maging proud at wag ikahiya na sila ay isang household worker dahil ito ay marangal na trabaho at dito sila nakakatulong sa kanilang pamilya,” he added.
Crowned Binibining Bagong Bayani was Cresilda P. Serenado-Avenido, a mother who works for an Australian family in Dubai. “Sobrang saya ko po,” said Avenido, whose 13-year-old daughter back home, Krisha Marie, she said, was equally ecstatic upon learning of her mom’s triumph on the catwalk.
The runners-up were: Heyasmin D. Caseres of Tagbilaran, Bohol (fourth), a domestic help for the past 6 years; Maria Margarita Pereyra of Bicol, who has been HSW for the past three years (third); Mary Jane V. Flores of Agusan del Sur (second), an HSW for the past 5 years; and Carla Mae J. Palentinos (first), an HSW for the past 25 years.
