Will Stella Marquez Araneta allow the newly franchised Miss Universe Philippines to use the title “Bb. Pilipinas” to select next year’s representative to the Miss Universe 2020 regardless of where it will be held?

It’s true that there is a new organization to handle the selection of next year’s Bb. Pilipinas Universe and it is headed by Bb. Pilipinas Universe 2011 Shamcey Supsup. The new organization is known simply as Miss Universe Philippines (MUP). The announcement does not say that the Philippine representative the new group will send to next year’s Miss Universe pageant will still be known as “Bb. Pilipinas.” She couldn’t be called Bb. Pilipinas even right here in the Philippines.

That’s because it is very possible that Stella’s Bb. Pilipinas Charities Inc. (BPCI) owns the title “Bb. Pilipinas.” The BPCI has been sending Philippine representative to the Miss U for 55 years now, and all other reps it sends out to international competitions go by the title “Bb. Pilipinas” with the name of the global contest attached to it. No one has ever come up with a local contest with the nationalistic name “Bb. Pilipinas ng mga Dakilang Magbubukid” because the name will be an infringement on BPCI intellectual property rights.

WILL Miss Universe 2011 third runner-up Shamcey Supsup’s team produce more winners as Stella Marquez-Araneta’s BCPI did for the past 55 years?

The BPCI’s ownership of the title might be the reason the feisty Columbian-Filipina is not raising hell about the non-renewal of BPCI’s franchise to send the Philippine representative to the Miss U. She could simply announce at the right time that Shamcey’s MUP can’t use the title “Bb. Pilipinas.”

Can the non-renewal be among the reasons our Gazini Ganados landed only in Top 20 and not even on the Top 10?

For sure, the Miss Universe Organization (MUO) knew way before the Atlanta, Georgia pageant that they would not be renewing BPCI’s franchise, so why should it allow BCPI the honor of producing for the last time a BPCI rep to even land on the Top 10?

But most likely no one other than MUO’s topmost executives knew that the BPCI franchise will not be renewed, so we here in the Philippines kept hoping very strongly, if not fiercely, that our Gazini be our fifth Miss Universe and we be only the second country to pull off a back-to-back victory — the now bankrupt Venezuela being the first in 2008 and 2009.

But now one wonders if our Catriona Gray, as Miss U 2018, knew beforehand that as soon as she would relinquish her crown, MUO will let the world know that BPCI no longer has the privilege of sending the Philippine rep to the world’s most prestigious beauty contest? If she knew and kept quiet, she’s a great one for not rocking the boat and for keeping her peace.

If MUP is aware of the possibility of their not being allowed to use “Bb. Pilipinas” as the title of their candidate to the Miss U, they had better launch a contest soon for the most appropriate and most enticing title for their beauty queen.

“Have I won Miss Universe or medals at the SEA Games? What’s going on?” quipped actress Judy Ann Santos to her self in Tagalog the moment she mysteriously started receiving texts on her mobile congratulating her for something she had no idea about.

She didn’t know at the moment she had just won best actress at the 49th Cairo International Film Festival in far away Egypt for her performance in Mindanao as the faithful mother of a terminally ill-daughter whom she has to carry around in her arms and breast all the time. She was torn between losing her daughter or her soldier husband in a war just some miles away.

JUDY Ann Santos (left) is a heavy favorite to win the Best Actor plum at this year’s Metro Manila Film Festival for her winning portrayal in Brillante Mendoza’s “Mindanao.”

The actress was getting the mysterious congratulatory texts while she was cleaning tables in a restaurant she and husband Ryan Agoncillo have just put up.

It’s a cause for celebration as it is only the second time for a Filipina to win best actress in that festival. The first was achieved by our now practically lackluster superstar Nora Aunor in 1995 for her portrayal of a Pinay domestic help in Singapore who was meted the death penalty for allegedly killing a fellow Pinay domestic and the son of her (Flor’s) employer. Joel Lamangan directed the film. (And he also directed Judy Ann in Sabel for which she won best actress in the critics’ Urian Awards in 2005 for portraying the title character of an activist nun who is secretly a lesbian.)

“I hope my winning the award will help Mindanao attract so much viewers during the 2019 Metro Manila Film Festival. It’s a serious film and we all know that people are not fond of watching serious entries during the festival which happens to be Christmas season,” Judy Ann said at the film’s press preview at the Directors’ Club at Podium Mall in Mandaluyong.

The film marks the first time for Judy Ann to work with director Brillante “Dante” Mendoza who actually also won the award for Best Artistic Contribution at the Cairo festival.

But the film is also the first time Brillante included animation in his film. And the excuse for it is the mother’s patient retelling to her daughter of a Mindanao legend about two warrior brothers who had to fight dragons who wanted to take over their settlement.It’s actually the filmmaker’s effort to attract children to the film which is not really about the war in Mindanao but about parents’ faithful love for their children.

With Brillante’s creative control, Mindanao is only mildly a tearjerker but greatly a meaningful film during the Christmas season of 2019. It’s definitely worth watching.