MISS EARTH 2007

Watch the 2007 Miss Philippines-Earth coronation on April 29, live from the U.P. Theater at 7:00 in the evening. Telecast via ABS-CBN and The Filipino Channel.

I owe a lot to Miss Philippines-Earth (MPE) 2006 for the well-attended academic activities which I organized in August 2005 (re: Sympo on Jatropha curcas, a.k.a., Tuba-Tuba), and most recently, in March 2007 (re: Special Lecture on Environmental Leadership by UNEP's 2007 Champion of the Earth Elisea "Bebet" Gozun; see 1 April 2007 posting). MPE 2006, in the person of Miss Catherine "Cathy" Yu Untalan, was so gracious to plant a Tuba-Tuba seedling under the scorching heat of the 11 a.m. sun in August 2005 at the backyard of UP-NCPAG after the interesting symposium (see picture above; I will write about Jatropha curcas later). I told the audience at that time that with Miss Untalan's wit, she might win the Miss Earth 2006 crown which no Filipina has so far won since the pageant's inception in 2004. Unfortunately, she did not bag the much-coveted crown but placed 2nd runner up with the title "Miss Earth-Water 2006" which is the highest rank a Filipina has achieved so far in the three years existence of the pageant. Below are quotations from Miss Untalan:

nWhat she says about herself: “I recently graduated from the University of the Philippines Diliman with a degree in Psychology. I've always enjoyed meeting new faces and going to different places and trying new things. I spent most of my life in a military base, which taught me discipline in a special way. My faith in God keeps me grounded.”

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nHer environmental platform:“I would like to spearhead environmental awareness programs which will inculcate responsilbility in our youth.”