The Beautiful and the Disaster Part I

Buen, a highschool friend invited me to go to Brgy. Panique, the last barangay of the town. It's about 20 to 30 minutes ride from town if you're going 60.

Here's how the invitation went - as exactly how I got it:

Buen: "Tian,my motor ka?tara punta tau ng panique...txtbCk po
Me: "Nu meon?"
Buen: "Coronation,punta tau txt me f okay d2 lang aq kanto dapawan sa my simenteryo,la ne me xtra load...tnx"
Me: "Sige ligo lang ako. Daanan kita jan."
Buen: "Ok xtian take your time dito lang ako...cgeh po w8 kita..."

So I hurriedly prepared for the night out. I picked him just outside the cemetery gate and we headed to a gasoline station where they sell gasoline in one liter Coke bottles. We got a liter of gasoline.

We arrived at Barangay Panique around ten in the evening. Inside the elementary school campus was being held the Ms. Panique 2010. It was already starting. The place was crowded so we decided to stay outside and walk for a bit. Just a note:  According to Buen, it was an open pageant which means anybody from any barangay or town could join which was the case. Made me wonder why it was not titled Ms. Open Pageant 2010 instead. Just a thought. Hihihi...

Buen is known by everyone. That's how gays are here. They can run in public office and they would be sure winners, popularity-wise that is. Especially Buen. He seem to know everybody. We talked for a bit and then we saw a "peryahan" across the street. We went there and played. I lost twenty pesos in the "color game." There are three cube with each side colored. Then they are rolled on to a slanted plank. You place bets on which color you think will come up. You're lucky if all the dices come up with same color you bet on, you get triple the amount of your bet. Buen on the other hand tried his shooting skills. He was given a gun full with pellets for ten pesos. Everyone there, including the bystanders were cheeringfor him. He able to shoot 3 small plastic soldiers and as a prize was given one piece of Sky Flake biscuit which he later gave to a small kid behind him. Lol.

Buen aiming hard at the small targets

After the perya stint, we headed to a small sari-sari store (ain't sari-sari stores supposed to be smoall? Lol) and bought beers. I got SanMig Light while he did Red Horse while doing some poses for my almost-battery-empty camera.

Me drinking my first of two bottles for the night.

Me and Buen: Ang Mga Dayong Bakla sa Barangay Panique. Lol.

 

Me waiting for Buen to come out of the dressing room

After the beer, we watched the pageant. We stayed on the left side of the stage near the candidates' makeshift dressing area. It's a small area about 2x2 meters and was covered up to about 5 ft in height. You can see young and old men trying so hard to take a glimpse of the contestants inside. (ewww...mga mambobosa...)

There, I met some of Buen's gay friends who were also the handlers of the contestants. Then someone said to me, "Kuya Ian, si Kit to!" It was my friend's younger brother is now gayer than ever.

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I asked how much he makes being the handler of a contestant. Handlers do the make-up, prepare the costumes, and other things. It's hard work. Kit said the cut depends on how much the prize is and if the contestant wins or lose. That night the major prize was Php 5,000.00. The handler gets around Php 1,500.00 from that amount. The amount is higher if the gown and costumes came from the handler. Unfortunately, Kit's contestant did not win anything, not even a special award. He got Php 400.00. He said, "wala na namang pangchupa."

Buen, Kit and Me - The official cam whores of the night.

Kit and Buen - Tinalo pa yung mga contestants sa poses!

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There were 9 candidates which were trimmed down to 5. The five had their Q&A which the host said was a make or break. I noticed that the host loved to say the word "sophisticated." If I remember it correctly, he used the word to describe more than half of the contestants during the evening gown presentation. He would even use it with the word "simple" in one sentence. Kinda confusing... The answers of the contestants during the Q&A were also depressing.

Slouchy Ms. Panique 2009 came out in a yellow gown (Cory! Cory! Cory!) for her final walk before the winners were announced. After the awarding it was DANCE DANCE DANCE. People rushed to the dance floor, most of which were half drunk and were doing all sorts of no-care-in-the-world dance moves. Really entertaining.

My camera was really dead but I managed to take a few more shots before it totally said goodbye. Here they are.

Miss Panique 2010

Miss Panique 2010 First Runner-up

The night seemed to be going perfect until DISASTER happened...

*This post should been posted earlier at around 5am but the power went out. Thank God Blogger has been auto-saving everything...