Bianca Manalo: Making The World A Better Place
Pamela Bianca Manalo, simply Bianca to friends, is an imposing presence both on and off stage. Standing regally at 5’10,” this 22-year old Advertising graduate of Assumption College works as a Flight Attendant for Philippine Airlines, the country’s official flag carrier.
This towering beauty was born in Manila but now lives in Paranaque City with her family. She is not new to the world of beauty pageants since an aunt is a former Ms. Philippines International and her older sister, Kate Manalo-Hernandez, was Ms. Philippines World.
Fiercely independent, driven and bestowed with a keen sense of volunteerism, Bianca finds fulfillment in being involved in community-based projects. “I am very thankful that my family has always been blessed but I’m also concerned about the plight of other less fortunate families in our community and in our society as well. Before I joined Bb. Pilipinas, I’ve always been happy to volunteer for Gawad Kalinga in building houses for the poor, joining medical missions and participating in our community’s feeding programs. Through this pageant’s various humanitarian missions, I was able to become more involved in a larger scale and to make a bigger impact in the upliftment of the quality of life of our marginalized brothers, especially the victims of calamities and our wounded soldiers,” she says with conviction.
Constantly striving for excellence in everything she does, Bianca stood out in cheerleading during high school and college. She dabbled in modeling when she was 14 and also tried her hand at TV hosting as well. During her safety training as a Flight Attendant, she graduated 1st Honorable Mention among 75 cabin crews and, on that unforgettable night of March 7, 2009 which sealed her fate as the Philippine representative to the Miss Universe pageant in the Bahamas, not only did she take home the coveted title of Miss Universe-Philippines, she also won special citations as Miss Natasha, Miss Philippine Airlines, Manila Bulletin Readers’ Choice Award, and the Best in Swimsuit award.
Considering that she is now one of the country’s ambassadors of goodwill, Bianca plans to follow this path and someday be a Philippine Ambassador in every sense of the word. She plans to pursue post-graduate studies in a Foreign Service-related field and be a career service professional, a natural progression for her given her beauty title, pageant training and career as a flight attendant.
Aside from fulfilling her duties and responsibilities as Miss Universe-Philippines, taking part in humanitarian missions to uplift the plight of marginalized Filipinos, and improving the morale of the country’s wounded soldiers, Bianca is also training tirelessly and diligently to fulfill her most cherished dream of becoming Ms. Universe. To ensure that she is prepared and worthy of the crown, she is currently taking language courses, reviewing her Philippine History, Geography, Economics and Arts & Culture. She is also trying to learn as much as she could about the Bahamas, host of this year’s Ms. Universe pageant. For the intense media scrutiny that beauty queens are normally subjected to, she has undergone and excelled in on-cam training, like hosting and angles, plus hair and make-up lessons since she will have to do her own hair and make-up during the Ms. Universe pageant.
Despite the pressures, hectic schedules and the seemingly daunting task ahead of her, Bianca is determined to plunge head on in her pursuit of the Ms. Universe title. “I believe that if you really want something, you have to give it your 101%,” she says with a beguiling smile. Constantly thankful for the privilege of being a beauty queen, she is more than ready to undergo any challenge to bring the title where it truly belongs…home to the Philippines.
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