Cinderella Faye Obeñita

Ace up her sleeve: How Cindy slayed her final Q & A to win the crown

By Earl D.C. Bracamonte

While she joined the Binibining Pilipinas 2021 semifinal round as the winner of the online poll, Cinderella Faye Obeñita surprised everyone with her eloquence in the final interview. And, just like the fairy tale story, she had her magical moment at the stroke of midnight and won one of the evening's four crowns - hers being the InterContinental title.

As the first of the four Binibini winners to compete on the international stage, hopes were high for the Cagayan de Oro maiden to win the country's second Miss InterContinental crown. And win she did, with flying colors!

But even before the final interview that cemented her victory, Cindy played her winning cards right from the start. As the saying goes, you win battles at the very inception and not during midstream, or the final moment. Because, truth to tell, you plan your moves before taking them and, in fact, study each one for efficacy and accuracy.

After her national victory, the Miss InterContinental organization posted Cindy as their first candidate to the crown. That alone was a telltale sign. So from there, Cindy worked her way, slowly but surely, to the very top.

As a senior tourism officer, she knew her mettle would be very useful to the organization because tourism was at the very heart of the Miss InterContinental agenda. When she made her introduction video, she made sure she didn't sell herself, and the Philippines, short. Fortunately, it received the highest number of views and approval worldwide.

When she arrived in Sharm El-Sheikh, she charmed her way into the hearts of the organization and her co-candidates. True enough, she was front and center in most of the pre-pageant activities, including a hosting job for one of the events.

From pre-pageant to preliminaries and unto the final show, Cindy simply did her best, leaving no stone unturned to assure best results. But what cemented her victory, like the national pageant, was her innate eloquence. She simply knew her gray matter was her aces in the game.

And so, when she was asked "As an international ambassador, do you believe that speaking English is important for Miss InterContinental? Why or why not?," her calm but loaded response just made viewers gawk in awe.

And her winning answer was, to quote, "As an ambassador, I don't think that speaking a specific language is very important here in Miss InterContinental or any pageant at all. As long as that woman is a woman of power and grace, commitment and intelligence, no matter what language she speaks - and that woman is actually a woman of style and substance - then she can win any pageant or any endeavor that she is into.

"I have learned, here, actually, in Miss InterContinental, that a woman should possess power of substance and I believe I am that woman. Because that is the essence of a modern-day Miss InterContinental. We are living in a world where it is very hard to survive and as Miss InterContinental, I would like to be that source of hope, that source of inspiration on the true power of beauty, and that is felt on the kindness of our hearts and the sincerity of our loving actions."

After her reply, everybody knew who won the contest - the announcement simply being a formality. And as they say, the rest is history - or her story, rather!