One of the most heavily criticized and bashed ladies in this year’s Binibining Pilipinas pageant is the 5’8″ stunner from Talisay City, Cebu. Despite being one of the most gorgeous faces in the pageant, she is getting more than a fair share of hate online.

This is the story that nobody dares to talk about.



It was late after the Binibining Pilipinas parade of beauties at the Araneta Center that this blogger was able to join Gazini in her meet and greet at the Kagandahang Flores headquarters in Quezon City. Tired and late as we were, she greeted us with a warm and friendly hug. Gazini isn’t your regular beauty queen hopeful. This lady didn’t grow up with a silver spoon in her mouth and much like every other beauty queen wannabe, she has a story of struggle to tell. I was with Tita Lavinia of Titas of Pageantry andOreo of Big Beez Buzz that evening and she went on an interview via Instagram Live. This was not the typical interview as Gazini was asked tough questions that she addressed with maturity and panache.During the conversation she addressed criticisms and the online hate she is getting about beauty enhancements she had in the past. Not to everyone’s knowledge, there has been a number of Instagram profiles that would post photos of her from several years back before she even started joining pageants. These accounts would mock her for going under the knife. Cool and composed, Gazini said that this is who she is now but underneath nothing has fundamentally changed. Acknowledgement without addressing explicitly the question was a smart way to deal with it. Beauty enhancements and treatments isn’t exactly a new issue in pageant anymore and we should all be beyond that by now. Past beauty queens from Venus, Shamcey, Ara, Pia, Maxine, Kylie, et al… have had some beauty treatments whether it be collagen injections, botox, veneers, implants, etc… The way I see it, the bashing she is receiving is simply because of one reason: she is beautiful so she is a threat…



One of the things I tried to clarify from her is the rumor that recently came into my attention – that she has switched camps from the Kagandahang Flores to its rival camp, to which she fervently denied. With her meet & greet happening in the KF headquarters, that should have been enough clue, but I had to ask just to make it clear and official. Gazini in one of our earlier conversations said that her conscience will not make her sleep if she left KF Cebu, noting that mentor Jonas Borces was there from the time she was starting up until this day. This lady values loyalty and knows how to look back where she came from. This was perhaps a trigger that put the social media demolition team to work against her… and that perhaps her refusal to switch camps may have motivated these attacks on her on Facebook and Instagram.



It is quite unfortunate that she has to go through hardships over again just when her dreams are just within an arm’s reach. You see, Gazini despite numerous clamor to join Binibini since her MWP stint, postponed her joining BBP at the request of her mother. She finished her studies first because it was her mom’s wish (she’s a Tourism graduate from the University of San Jose-Recoletos in Cebu City). Raised by a single mom and her grandparents, Gazini didn’t come from a family of wealth. That is why she didn’t grow up with the sense of entitlement most people in her age have. She knew the value of working hard seeing how her family would do their business by travelling to Divisoria and back home in the province. Yes, you heard me right. She didn’t grow up in the swanky streets of Dasmarinas or New Manila. She knew how to go to the muddy, and often smelly, streets and alleyways of Divisoria to help carry the wares that they would have to buy and sell. She grew up in Dapitan under the care of her grandparents as a kid and had moved around several times too. So for those that question her speaking skills calling her unintelligent, try to walk in her shoes and see how far can you go. She made do with what cards she was dealt with. She may have wanted a loftier course like being a doctor or a lawyer, and she would have undoubtedly done great, but life sometimes gets in the way. It is so easy to belittle someone’s educational attainment or public speaking skills or question one’s intelligence, specially if they know nothing about her story. So it is unfair to compare the life journeys of someone who were born with a silver spoon in their mouths versus those who grew up working hard to put food in their spoons.



When her ailing grandparents needed help, she took up a Nursing Care course so she could take care of them herself. This is why her advocacy for elderly care is so personal to her. She saw firsthand the lack of facilities and amenities in hospitals in the provinces. She knew firsthand how to take care of ailing patients. It would have been easy to have other take the responsibility but she took it as a way to give back. And she still keeps giving back to her family even to this day.

Pageant and modelling has been a means to help her family and help her go through school. If she had to go under the knife just so she could use her looks to get bookings as a model and help earn a living out of it, who are we to judge? Nothing was easily handed to her and despite that she still manages to smile through all the hate and bashing coming her way. Now that is admirable.

Born Gazini Christiana Jordi Acopiado Ganados, this Filipina-Palestinian beauty grew up never meeting her father. I remember the first time we had a long conversation at Pizza Hut in Cubao, she said that she is hoping that if her father is still alive in Palestine, her joining Binibining Pilipinas might help open doors to finally meet him. That is why in an interview with Bobby Requintina of the Manila Bulletin, she mentioned Palestine to be one of the places she would like to visit aside from Nazareth, Israel and Paris, France. She wanted to hug her father and thank her for the life and genes she is blessed with. With no trace of bitterness, she says that when she is reunited with her dad it would be the happiest day of her life.



Gazini isn’t unique in the struggles she faced. Perhaps unlike other candidates who had wealthy families and relatives, Gazini grew up with stamina to face a difficult road ahead because her entire family relied on each other. Perhaps this is life’s way of setting her up towards a better future. Now you know more of her and her story, perhaps you would learn to see her with much more compassion than you used to. And that perhaps, the bashers and haters would learn to respect the woman she became and she is now, because she hasn’t deliberately stepped on somebody else to get to where she is now.

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