'I picked Shamcey to be 1st runner-up' - Lea Salonga

In one of her first interviews after the Miss Universe pageant, Lea Salonga reveals how she and her fellow judges selected the finalists: "There had to be a spark in each of these women, there had to be something beyond their look, something behind the eyes, which is how we got the final ten and then the final five." She said nearly everyone agreed Miss Angola deserved to win. She spoke to Kara David last September 15 by telephone on News To Go. KARA DAVID: When they told you that you were going judge the Miss Universe pageant, ano 'yung initial reaction mo? LEA SALONGA: I think my initial reaction was that of disbelief. I was just hoping that' ok are you sure you are picking the right person for this job?' It's certainly you know an honor to be asked to judge this contest, because I mean, you know so many people that would be watching, number one, and two, it's something that is incredibly popular in so many countries. So you know, it's gonna be something really really fun and really cool to do. That's what I thought. KARA: How would you judge? Beauty ‘di ba? LEA: Beauty is very subjective but we were all given very specific parameters as to what to judge. I mean the beauty from the contestants has to be something very natural, meaning ibiniyaya ng Diyos, so if that person basically wasn't endowed with beauty from the day she was born and not manufactured then that was something we had to consider and there were certainly messages that we know that we were going to tell people. For example if we let somebody through you know that might be a great message to send to young people, even if sabihin nalang natin na her being skinny was genetic you know. So we picked the women that I guess we all thought were beautiful but who were given that beauty by nature, you know by God. There had to be a spark in each of these women, there had to be something beyond their look, something behind the eyes, which is how we got the final ten and then to the final five. That’s how Miss Angola was crowned Miss Universe. KARA: Ikaw 'yung nagtanong ng question doon sa nanalong Miss Universe, 'yun din ba 'yung isa sa mga reasons kung bakit 'yon ang tinanong mo kasi sobrang importante sa inyo 'yung natural na beauty because your question was about kung alin ang puwede mong i-change na physical attribute di ba? LEA: Kung mayroon kang physical attribute na puwede mong palitan ano 'yun at bakit? That was basically my question. First of all, not too many people know about it but all of our questions were assigned to us. Meaning hindi kami mismo ang nagsulat ng mga tanong kung anong itatanong namin dun sa contestant. My question came from the organizers of the pageant, so I had a card with a Miss Universe logo on the back so when she picked my name out of the fish bowl, I read the question to her and the interpreter translated the question. The funny thing is because this was Brazil and she was speaking Portugese and because one the hosts also was speaking Portuguese, if the interpreter got it wrong there are a lot of people in the place that would cry out, especially since you know their own was one of the top five. Well it was interesting, it's very interesting watching all of these when I was sitting. KARA: Ano 'yung impression mo of our bet, si Miss Philippines, Shamcey Supsup. LEA: One she's gorgeous, I mean she's gorgeous, confident and she comes across as very intelligent. I don't think she would have made it even into the top 16 if she didn't have personality, if she didn't have spirit, if she was just a pretty face. So to get into the top 16 you get more than a pretty face and an amazing body. You have to be kind, you have to be friendly and there are a lot of other intangible attributes that you have to posses in order to be up to the sixteen, so you know I was hoping please get her to the sixteen and then from there we'll see what happens and she got there. Honestly on TV she looked like she had no expectation of getting that far. I think she took everything in stride, I think she herself is happy with how she did at the end of the day. KARA: Ikaw rin ba, you were expecting her to be third runner-up or mas mataas pa dapat? LEA: I actually placed her at 1st runner-up, I didn't place her to win because Miss Angola is just breathtaking. You know all of us just saw it, we look at her, we couldn't take our eyes off her. When we are looking at her live obviously we are a few seats away, it's probably very different from what the television audience is looking at, you know, because I was watching the pageant back in my aunt's house it's like okay there’s some stuff here that I didn't see or this is what I saw, and you know it's very different as we were sitting. But we were told to be extremely objective and not to have any biases, but the thing is even with our objectivity there might also be some subjectiveness. Somebody that I might not place very high, the judge at the other table or beside me could have placed that person very very low, and you know a few of the girls that I had placed high in the swimsuit competition did not make it to evening gown so I'm like ahh it's interesting. So I guess with the law of averages being what it is and with the accounting firm I guess doing their job and everything being unbiased, that's how they came out with the candidates and thus the winner. The winner was pretty clear-cut, I have to be honest. KARA: Ikaw din, Miss Angola 'yung nasa top mo? LEA: Yah, I placed her at the top. KARA: Si Miss Philippines, was there any pressure on you to put her up there? LEA: No, for me I just have to be objective and I just had to look at her objectively, taking everything into account that I had seen in the three parts of the competition: in swimsuit, evening gown and then the final question. So I need to take all of those things into consideration and declare the winner, and when I looked at Facebook, the majority of people picked the same way that we did and I guess they saw what we saw as well. She was incredibly charming and even you know the interpreter seemed to be or maybe going ahead of her, and she remained incredibly poised through it. She was very charming to watch and when we then got our pictures taken with her I saw her close up. It was like, Oh my God this woman is even more gorgeous a few inches away from her than many feet away. It's like wow she's really beautiful. KARA: Si Shamcey, have you talked to her after the pageant? LEA: I actually saw her, I was actually looking for her after the pageant just to be able to congratulate her and to tell her how well she did. 'Coz you know she did incredibly well, she did not trip when she was in swimsuit, she did not falter when she was in gown and she answered her question in the best of her ability, and she answered with confidence and good conviction, and there was nothing that she did wrong. It's just that Miss Angola did everything right to another degree and it's a competition. You know next year maybe it will be Miss Philippines’ turn to win, we just never really know. KARA: Final message to Filipinos, kasi hanggang ngayon mayroon pa din Miss Universe hangover dito sa Pilipinas. LEA: I completely understand and even all the judges were experiencing a hangover, I mean I was on the plane ride back to the States with two of the other judges and on my way to the airport with another one and all of us we were talking about the pageant and we were talking about the young lady that we eventually chose. I think most of the ones I spoke to were overwhelmingly in favor of Miss Angola winning, all of us were talking about how much fun that was and how beautiful Brazil was and how we definitely must find a chance to go back. - GMA News