By Hermes Joy S. Tunac
From princess of the volleyball court to beauty queen, this lady was also on the ball during the pandemic, launching a donation drive for medical frontliners. For Michele, a former Binibining Pilipinas Globe, her beauty title is a powerful tool for spreading positive change. Will lightning strike twice as she guns for a bigger, more prestigious crown?
Volleyball player-turned-beauty queen Michele Gumabao, one of PeopleAsia’s Women of Style and Substance 2020 awardees, is probably facing her biggest battle yet.
As the representative of Quezon City, the former Binibining Pilipinas Globe is giving beauty pageant another shot, as she and 50 other hopefuls vie for the lone Miss Universe Philippines (MUP) crown. As we write this, Michele and her MUP “sisters” are on their way to Baguio to participate in the newly formed pageant’s closing activities, which will culminate on Oct 21, 10:30 a.m. with the crowning of the new winner.
Michele, who has been consistently training for the competition while attending to a donation drive for frontliners during the past several months, is more than ready for primetime, and beauty pageant experts and fashion designers Noel Crisostomo and Monika Ravanera think so, too.
According to Monika, Michele is determined to win the Miss Universe Philippines crown, as she brings her discipline as an athlete to the competition. “Should she win the MUP, her experience with Miss Globe is a plus. I had the chance to work with her when I styled one of her shoots. She is a pro–easy and fun to work with,” Monika shares.
Noel supports Monika’s sentiments, saying that Michele is a great communicator, aside from her natural beauty. “She is relatable and has a real advocacy. Her beauty has an international appeal, and she commands a presence. When she speaks, she can make people listen,” says Noel.
Towards the end of 2019, the Miss Universe Organization (MUO) broke the news of its franchise transfer. After more than 50 years under Binibining Pilipinas Charities Inc., MUP, which, for the longest time, was known as Binibining Pilipinas Universe, had spun off in late 2019 to become a separate beauty tilt under new owners.
This also gave the 27-year-old another shot at the elusive crown. “I guess you can call it destiny,” she says with a chuckle.
Michele, no longer a naive freshman but a hungry sophomore, immediately submitted her application to be part of MUP’s 2020 batch. She also quickly shared the good news with her fans on Instagram. Wearing a yellow body-con dress, Michele, with her back against the wall with the words “Miss Universe Philippines” written on it, looked every inch the frontrunner.
“Trading in my sneakers one more time. Submitted my application to be part of the first-ever Miss Universe Philippines. Hello 2020,” Michele, the palaban (out-to-win) candidate, writes in the photo’s caption.
When Michele Gumabao joined Binibining Pilipinas in 2018, many thought it was already too late for the then 25-year-old volleyball player. She went for it anyway.
Aside from trying her luck, Michele had a bigger purpose in joining: to further advance her advocacy for sports. And so she stepped into an altogether different world.
In volleyball, being a team player is a must. To win, a team needs to develop collaborative effort and connection towards each other. In the beauty pageant area, not quite. “The competition is more intense because you don’t know who to trust,” the beauty queen reveals.
While she had to work on being a little bit more reserved and circumspect in her actions, Michele’s background as a trained athlete armed her with a number of advantageous traits — punctuality, composure, confidence and a toned body.
In the end, she was crowned Binibining Pilipinas Globe, thus paving the way for her to wear the Philippine sash on the world stage.
Putting words into action
Proving that such words are no lip service, Michele and her boyfriend, Aldo Panlilio, initiated a donation drive on Instagram dubbed as “Your 200 Pesos” (Y2P), early in the pandemic. For every P200 donated to the program, one family will receive a Y2P eco-pack containing commensurate food and necessities.
Aside from being able to distribute up to 6,000 eco-packs on some days, Y2P also supplies an additional 6,000 to 7,000 meals and essentials to medical frontliners and officials per drop off. To this day, one would find Michele doing less glamorous errands for her advocacy: cooking, repacking, distributing—you name it.
“We only started by distributing food packs on the streets,” Michele recalls. “But donations from our friends, family and from our own pockets started to grow until it became an organization supported by thousands of people here and abroad,” she says.
The four-month-old organization shows no signs of stopping in assisting those in need during these difficult times, as more and more sponsors keep coming in.
As for MUP’S immediate future and the very first edition of the local search under new management, Michele assures her fans that there will be a national contest slated sometime this October. Their trainings and video challenges, she declares, have proceeded apace, as we write this.
“Preparation is key. It’s much harder now because there is no interpersonal contact. But I’m eager to win, so I’m being creative with my training during these times,” she explains.
On the official Facebook page of MUP, many express their fears in the comments section that the pandemic might affect the global contest this year. But MUP national director ShamceySupsup-Lee, in a video announcement, reassures fans that they’re confident in MUO’s operational resilience. “We are in touch with them and are regularly updated when there are changes in their strategic directions,” Shamcey adds.
Should the Miss Universe pageant happen as planned, will Lady Luck smile on Michele this time around?
For Michele, win or lose, the real essence of being a beauty queen lies in her advocacy. “The core of my previous journey as a beauty queen had always been about sports. Now, that platform has grown to include attending to people’s needs, which I am trying to fulfill to the best of my abilities in the time of COVID-19,” she concludes like a true winner.
