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Karla Bautista's Arrival Party
BPCI, spearheaded by Madame Stella Marquez de Araneta, organized a welcome party for Bb. Pilipinas World 2004 Maria Karla Bautista. Karla emerged triumphant in the recently concluded Miss World 2004 beauty pageant by reaching Top 5. She was also proclaimed Queen of Asia and Oceania. During the party, the guests felt the spirit of Christmas. Everyone was happy for Karla. Present in this occasion are local television and press, members of Karla's family, friends and people who prepared her for the pageant. According to Karla, she did expect to win the Miss World crown. She thought that she delivered the goods well during the final night and knowing that many Filipinos are supporting her all throughout. She only had nice words for the eventual winner, "Miss Peru deserved it." Karla is not really fond of USA's, Nancy Randall.    Her Asian compatriots, most especially her groupmates were all rooting and cheering for her to win the title. In fact, most of the girls in Group 2 expected her to do very well. Karla earned a lot of friends in the pageant. She became very close to her roommate, Miss Thailand. The other Miss World candidates that became her peeps were Miss Korea, Miss Hongkong, Miss England, Miss Sweden, Miss Ireland and the rest of the Asian beauties except for Sayali Bhagat of India. Miss India mingles with another group.  
Karla also knew that her countrymen would not let her down. "I wouldn't have made it this far without your help," she told her kababayan. "Receiving flowers, calls, and text messages ... made me feel happy." Asked who she thought would win, Karla replied: "I came to the contest with the hope that I would be the winner. I knew someone was going to win and I hoped it would be me." But she said she was happy with Peru's victory. "She's pretty and smart, she'd make a great Miss World." When Karla placed fourth in the Beach Beauty competition, she felt that greater things were coming her way. This was the general feeling in her group, which included four more Asians. The delegates were divided in eight groups and Karla belonged to Group 3. Karla confessed that the girls hoped she would represent the continent in the Top 15. And she also has kind words for her "neighbors." Thailand, her roommate, was "very nice." Korea was "cute and funny, like our youngest sister in the group." She grew fondest of the two girls, as well as Miss Hong Kong. She was not able to interact much with the girls from other groups but she did not mind that, she said, because she "immensely" enjoyed the company of her own. Group 3 even held a pajama party after her outstanding placement in the Beach Beauty contest. And when Karla was called in the Top 5, her group frantically cheered backstage, prompting their chaperones to ask them to pipe down. "My group was laid back, not competitive at all. We were just out to enjoy everything that happened," Karla said.   International news caught pieces of Karla's mind in two press conferences. She was selected by pageant officials to speak in two engagements-the AIDS Day conference and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation. The latter turned out to be an occasion to defend the pageant when international reporters asked why she and the other girls participated in a contest where they were made "to display their bodies." "I was told of the speaking engagements only five minutes prior," Karla recounted, laughing. After the pageant, Karla hopes to use her victory to help typhoon victims. "Maybe I could invite people to donate money and goods. I will use my title to live out Miss World's principle, 'beauty with a purpose.'" And when her reign ends in February next year, Karla will resume her studies at the University of the Philippines in Diliman. She was a sophomore Mass Communications coed in UP Cebu when she joined the local pageant last March. Then she hopes to pursue a career in broadcasting "so I can save up for a good law school." "I hope to help abused women as a lawyer," she said. "It disheartens me that in this modern age, women are still being maltreated, and they still think they deserve it." She also wishes to defend poor people who are "deprived of justice just because they can't afford good lawyers." For now, Karla is bent on living the last months of her reign as a true beauty queen, one who puts a smile on her countrymen's face, just by being around.
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