Margie Moran can’t even congratulate Rabiya Mateo

By Alex P. Vidal

 

“No one knows what to say in the loser’s locker room.”—Muhammad Ali

WHEN the big names in the world of beauty pageant speak, fans normally lend credence to their messages.

Thus it is important they don’t pander in ambiguity and should be straightforward and truthful when they dabble in a general conversation.

But no one should begrudge Miss Universe 1973 Margie Moran when she recently shared on Instagram a photo of Ysabella Roxas Ysmael Martinez, her niece, who lost in the finals to Miss Universe Philippines 2020 Rabiya Mateo of Iloilo City at the Baguio Country Club on October 25.

Moran, 67, president of Ballet Philippines (BP) and chair of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), thinks her niece, the first runner-up in this year’s national Miss Universe Philippines pageant, is the deserving title winner.

“The first runner up is my Champion,” Moran wrote in the photo’s caption.

Stately accolades normally are bestowed on the winner instead of finding their way to the runner-up’s court; thus the Instagram message speaks volumes of Auntie Margie’s chagrin and exasperation for her niece’s defeat.

 

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The Philippine press reported that Moran has been vocal of her support for the aspiring pageant queen from Parañaque.

Moran wrote: “You were a standout but the purpose designed for you is greater than you can imagine.”

She added: “A star does not compete with other stars around it. It just shines.”

Any aunt or relative would have done the same in their social media accounts and otherwise.

Patronize your own product. Charity begins at home. Blood is thicker than water.

Moran, who must be very excited, was entitled to her own opinion; her sentiments were an exercise of her freedom of speech and expression.

Moran must also be probably frustrated and, to some extent, bitter that an Ilongga beauty from Balasan, Iloilo dashed to pieces the dreams of her niece to emulate her feat when she became the second Filipina to win the global beauty competition in 1973 after Gloria Diaz in 1969.

 

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So disheartened was Auntie Margie that she forgot one fundamental courtesy expected of a famous name in the world of beauty pageant like her: congratulate the winner.

It’s a simple moral obligation for “those who have been there before.”

Auntie Margie’s high-mindedness and magnanimity would have been the perfect vaccines to eviscerate the pandemic of envy, jealousy, and unsportsmanlike behavior that has gobbled up the sore losers’ GMRC.

With her stature, Auntie Margie can easily put off the flame of intrigues and chicanery tossed and marshaled by the cry babies and sore losers in the social media if she congratulated Rabiya Mateo right away with no prejudice to Auntie Margie’s personal felicitations for a vanquished niece.

Her failure to congratulate Rabiya Mateo on Instagram and other platforms and at least acknowledge the 23-year-old national beauty titlist even after paying homage to her niece, betrayed Moran’s personal bias, sugar-coated acridity, and unchivalrous-like attitude.

 

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo)