LADY Anne Alquizar is the newly-crowned MassKara Festival Queen of Bacolod City, besting nine other candidates in an ABS-CBN-produced beauty pageant held at University of St. La Salle (USLS) Coliseum Saturday.
Alquizar, candidate no. 2, was immediately proclaimed by Bacolod City Mayor Monico Puentevella as the new MassKara Queen, in the presence of First Lady Josefa Puentevella, ABS-CBN station manager Leilanie Salem-Alba, and the crowd who came to witness this year's pageant.
She also got two special awards: Best in Festival Costume and 2Go Princess.
Joy Jontilano, candidate no. 1, was named first runner-up. She received P50,000 and was named Best in Gown and Ms. SM Bacolod.
Franchette Laguda, candidate no. 10, was second runner-up and received P30,000. Laguda was also named Best in Talent and received P10,000.
The other candidates who got the special awards were Honeylen Garde, candidate no. 4, was named Best in Fantasy make-up and received P10,000; Rhea Mansueto, candidate no. 9, was named Ms. Palisade-SRDC and got P10,000; Chinky Cantere, candidate no. 7, was named Best in Swim Wear and received P10,000; Indy Caroline Yu, candidate no. 5 was named Ms. Merci and received P10,000; and Roselyn Corilla, candidate no. 6, who was named Ms. Congeniality, Ms. PanAsiatic, and received P10,000.
The other candidates were Jessa Costelo, Roselyn Corilla, and Charlyn Sabio.
Former MassKara queens also took the center stage in last Saturday's pageant.
Jewel Mae Lobaton, MassKara Queen 1993, gathered her fellow queens, calling themselves the MassKara Queen Circle. They had their MassKarade Fashion Ball Sunday night at the Government Center.
Mayor Puentevella was grateful of the success of the MassKara Festival queen pageant.
"Bacolod is blessed because we were spared from natural calamities. When there is typhoon everywhere, the weather was beautiful as we hold the Masskara Queen pageant. The MQ pageant was one of the best that I have ever seen in the last many years. The fight was close but the deciding or tipping point was the final question and answer. You have to combine beauty with brains. I would like to thank ABS-CBN for their professionalism and the hard work they had to make this a success. I salute to all of them for the right choice of music, lights and the entire production. It is a sign that next year would be a bigger one and we are going to have our own Megan Young in the future through the MQ. This is the best breeding ground, stepping stone for them. They train here and win here and then they go national and then international," he said.
He told Alquizar to maintain her coolness. “She answered the final question rightly and probably she hit the right chords for our judges. I wish she would maintain her honesty and sincerity because her answer came from the heart which made her win the title. It was a difficult question but she came out with the best answer, the reason that she was chosen as winner."