TACLOBAN CITY – One of the major winners during the recently-held Miss World Philippines is from Southern Leyte.
Crowned as Miss Eco Philippines 2017 was Cynthia Thomalla, whose mother is from Macrohon, Southern Leyte.
She will represent the country for Miss Eco 2017 to be staged in Alexandria, Egypt in 2018.
During the pageant night held at the MOA Arena last Sunday(Sept.3), Thomalla,22, however, identified herself as a representative of Cebu City where she studied and worked as a model.
Another candidate from the region, Cristina Coloma from Bobon, Northern Samar, managed only to land among the top 10.
Thomalla was one of the Top 5 choice picks of several beauty bloggers before the grand finals as she was said to possess a Barbie-doll like beauty.
She was born in Germany to a Filipina mother and German father. They migrated to Macrohon town when she was nine years old. She finished Tourism and Events Management at STI Maasin City.
At 16, she won her first beauty title as Miss Macrohon 2011, then she ended second-runner-up in Miss Southern Leyte 2012 pageant.
She bested 15 candidates when she won her second crown as Miss Pintados 2013, a beauty pageant in the region held in Tacloban City organized by the Miss Pintados Foundation.
She also ended first-runner up in both Miss Merida Leyte pageant and Miss Mandaue City 2015.
A sports enthusiast who competed in archery, running and archery in high school, she also bagged the special awards as Miss Photogenic, Best in Long Gown, Top Model, Best Smile and other corporate awards.
Miss Eco is a competition that brings together representatives of different cultures and traditions from all over the world. Its main objective is to promote the importance of saving our planet environmentally in addition to marketing tourism around the world.
(VICKY C. ARNAIZ)
