Janina San Miguel

Biography

Janina Miller San Miguel (born November 14, 1990) is a Filipino beauty queen who was crowned Binibining Pilipinas World at the Binibining Pilipinas 2008 beauty pageant. San Miguel resigned from her title in September 2008, three months before the scheduled Miss World pageant, citing personal reasons including the death of her grandfather. The title was transferred to the first runner-up, Danielle Castaño, who went on to represent the country at the Miss World 2008 pageant. Since then, San Miguel has lived a life out of the spotlight.

== Background == Janina San Miguel came from a poor family living in a residential compound in Quezon City. She is the eldest of three children, with her father working as a jeepney driver and her mother as a laundry washer or "labandera" (hired to wash other people's clothes). At the time of the Binibining Pilipinas 2008 pageant, San Miguel was a freshman student taking up broadcast communication at the University of the East in Manila, with the ambition of becoming a professional broadcaster.

== Pageantry ==

=== Binibining Pilipinas ===

The 2008 Binibining Pilipinas pageant was held on March 8, 2008, at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, Metro Manila. At seventeen years old, Janina San Miguel was the youngest contestant of the twenty-four women in the competition, as well as one of the tallest at 5 ft 11 in (180 cm). Early in the competition, San Miguel had won special awards for Best in Swimsuit and Best in Long Gown.

==== Question and answer ==== As part of the question and answer portion of the pageant, candidates were made to randomly select the name of their questioner-judge out of a fishbowl. The name that San Miguel picked was that of Vivienne Tan, the daughter of billionaire Lucio Tan. She asked San Miguel: "What role did your family play for you as candidate to Binibining Pilipinas?" San Miguel's response was disorganised and stumbling. As she lost her composure in giving her answer, the audience reacted with jeers and applause, as well as laughter from the panel of judges and other contestants. Despite the problems with her answer, she went on to win the competition and was crowned Binibining Pilipinas World. The criteria for judging the winner of the pageant allotted 80 percent to physical beauty, leaving just 20 percent to be divided evenly between personality and intelligence. Bediones later defended San Miguel, saying "I admire her for not buckling under the pressure and for being as blatantly honest as possible". However, he also added, "No matter how badly she may have performed in the Q&A, she couldn't have lost much considering she had a huge headstart in the scores". Winning the title made her the official designated Philippine delegate to the Miss World 2008 pageant, which was scheduled to be held later that year in Kyiv, Ukraine, (the venue was later moved to Johannesburg, South Africa, due to the conflict between Georgia and Russia).

San Miguel has admitted to being offended by criticism of her Q&A segment response. In an interview with entertainment commentator Ricky Lo a week after the event, she explained that she did not comprehend the question clearly when she was on stage at the pageant, due to the softness of the questioner's voice. When given another opportunity to answer the same question, she smiled and said, "My family is my inspiration".

==== Reaction ==== Video clips of her response have been uploaded to YouTube, which instantly boosted her popularity. Representative Eduardo Gullas, a senior lawmaker in the Philippine House of Representatives who authored a bill to reinstate English as the medium of instruction in schools, said the video of the incident was "tormenting to watch", and added, "She is a Filipino, and English is our highly favored second language. So people expected more from her." Following the incident, the director of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority offered to coordinate with pageant organizers to conduct English courses for all Miss Philippines candidates to better express themselves. San Miguel's response has drawn comparisons between her and Melanie Marquez, Filipina winner of the 1979 Miss International pageant who is well-known for her shortcomings in speaking English.