CHICAGO (FAXXNA/jGLi) – The public comments of Bea Rose Santiago right after winning the Miss International beauty contest in Japan were so shallow and so plastic, they did not sit well with her supporters.
When it came for Ms. Santiago to acknowledge the people to thank for, all she could muster was the name of Stella Marquez Araneta, the chairperson of the Binibining Pilipinas Charities, Inc. She must have also a very short memory!
If you watch the winners of the Oscars, they usually mention a whole host of names that the winners thank for.
But Bea Rose did not even add to her very short list her father and Edgar Sulit, a beauty impresario in Toronto, Canada, who gave her the break, to show her appreciation for their help.
When a contestant applies to join the Bb. Pilipinas beauty contest, it requires the contestant to submit a “Certificate of Good Moral Character given by your School, Church or Professional Organization.” May I ask the Bb. Pilipinas for a copy of Bea Rose’s Certificate of Good Moral Character if it was issued by reputable people?
If she has good manners, gratefulness should be among them.
If not, is it too much to ask that she give credit where credit is due? Specially, to those who helped her climb this far?
If you are going to give credit to one, who helped you, you might as well mention the rest, who did.
HALL OF FAMER RESPECTS CUBS
When baseball player Greg Maddux was inducted into the Hall of Fame recently, he showed his respect to the Chicago Cubs fans by requesting the Hall of Fame administrators that his plaque should not be adorned by Atlanta Braves logo, although, it was in that team that he got World Series ring, because as a former Chicago Cub, he also owes a lot of gratitude to the Chicago Cubs fans, who rooted for him during his first six years in the league, before he was traded to the Atlanta Braves, where he was a four-time Cy Young award winner for 11 years, and returned to the Cubs for another three years.
A visibly upset Mr. Santiago called his daughter, Bea Rose, a liar for turning the table on him. She said she had already forgiven her father for abandoning his children. He said he could not follow his family in Canada because his wife and his children were living with another man.
In a long post in his Facebook account, Mr. Santiago, a politician in the Bicol town of Masbate, Philippines, told Bea Rose, “I just want to set out what is true since Bea’s false public statement casts doubt on my honor and integrity as a person, as public official and as a law abiding citizen. If you, Bea, want to deny the veracity of all the points I raised in my statements despite the replete evidence I have in my possession, I challenge you to do so under oath. If not, you owe me, the public, as well as the Binibining Pilipinas Charities, Inc. a sincere apology. Your propensity to lie just like your mother may cost you your Ms. International Crown!”
Mr. Santiago said his daughter had “turned cold” to him when he could not comply with her request to give her “300 thousand pesos (US$7,000) in the early part of 2013 purposely to spend for her facial enhancements.” She even turned “colder when her mother arrived (from Canada) and she won the title. I and some siblings who came home from abroad just to support her attended the coronation night but we all felt her and her mother’s indifference.” If Ms. Santiago refuses to apologize to him, by all means, Mr. Santiago can always file a complaint against her before the Bb. Pilipinas Charities, Inc. by invoking the requirement that as a liar, Bea Rose Santiago failed the “good moral character” requirement. Being an ingrate and a liar are not qualities of a person of good moral character.
USING DECEASED MOTHER’S NAME
Mr. Santiago accused his estranged wife, for using her deceased mother’s name, Ophelia Monteverde, in a Facebook account to impute “innuendos that had been leveled against me.” He said his daughter Bea Rose Santiago “had falsely and maliciously” said some things against him last Sunday (January 5, 2014) in the Buzz ng Bayan TV program.
He accused his wife of brainwashing Bea Rose and her siblings so they would turn against him even after paying his “ex-wife’s plane fare to Canada in 2000.” He even turned over his salaries to her while he was working overseas (in Japan) because his wife could not hold a steady job due to her poor work ethic.
But he decided not to follow his wife in Canada after his brother “confronted me with the confirmation (of rumors) from our kababayans (townmates) in Cataingan, Masbate” that his wife was living with another man in Canada. He said this was confirmed when his children lived with his wife and her lover under one roof in 2006 in Canada.
Mr. Santiago told his ex-wife that he is “so mad of her infidelity and irresponsibility. I told her point blank that I could not allow our children to be with her much less could I join them in Canada and suffer the humiliation of seeing her with her paramour.”
It was in Toronto some four years ago when Filipino Canadian beauty impresario Edgar Sulit of International Professional Network (IPEN) met Bea at Fairview Mall that Sulit “told her (Bea) pointblank, you will be Bb. Pilipinas, (l)ike Tisha” Silang. Ms Silang (also under the mentorship of Sulit) would later be crowned also as Bb. Pilipinas Universe, but had to relinquish her title to her first runner-up due to citizenship issues.”
Like Mr. Santiago, Mr. Sulit was never in the radar of Bea Rose as among those who helped her get to the top. Maybe, Mr. Sulit should stop sending any more Filipino Canadian contestants to Bb. Pilipinas Charities. He should just send her prospects to Canada beauty contest organizations by invoking his track record of sending away three beauty contestants, who all won international beauty titles.
Bb. PILIPINAS SHOULD REVIEW BEA’S GOOD MORAL CHARACTER
If Bea Rose would not apologize to him, Mr. Santiago should urge Bb. Pilipinas Charities to review the good moral character issue of Bea. He said Bea sought his help as she complied with the “six-month residency requirement so she could live in my brother’s house in Quezon City.” But this meant nothing to her.
Mr. Santiago added, “All the while I was the one providing everything that she needs until she told me that she wanted to transfer to a condominium in Cubao as she was complaining that the house of her uncle is quite far from Cubao (where the Bb. Pilipinas Charities headquarters is located). I heeded her request. I paid for the down payment to the condo and monthly fees. Whenever she needs money, she just asks her cousin, who works for me to inform me about it and I immediately send her what she needs.”
If the Bb. Pilipinas Charities would ignore Mr. Santiago’s request to investigate the character issue of Bea Rose, he should ask the Bureau of Internal Revenue to ask the Bb. Pilipinas Charities for a public accounting of the amounts of charitable donations the Bb. Pilipinas Charities franchise has raised during so many years of its existence. And he should also ask the franchise to show how much annual donations are being spent, including the names of the recipients, to find out if it is keeping up with its own charter in the name of accountability and transparency.
There was no response to email messages for comment sent by this columnist to the Bb. Pilipinas Charities and Facebook accounts of Mr. Santiago and Bea Santiago. (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)