Pageant veteran and former Mrs. Southeast Asia Monique Cantalejo Rivera and multi-faceted Michelle Lucas are two of the most anticipated faces in the ongoing 2021 Mrs. Universe Philippines, a pageant for married women.
A dedicated mother of two with husband Joven, Rivera, a 39-year-old Laguna native became a breadwinner at a young age after their family-owned business closed down. She worked her way through college by taking on odd jobs at Enchanted Kingdom in Sta. Rosa, Laguna. She finished a degree at the Laguna College of Business and Arts.
Rivera has always wanted to become a beauty queen since she was a child. At twenty, she joined the “Beautiful Girl” contest-segment in GMA’s noontime TV show Eat Bulaga in 2002 and won Dream Girl 2nd runner up. She was crowned Mrs. Laguna 2018 and was sent to compete in Mrs. Southeast Asia 2018 in Singapore and was able to bring home the title. Her winning made her realize that a title and crown can be used as a platform to influence others towards a worthy cause.
She grabbed the opportunity that came to be involved in a volunteer charity initiative at Onessimo Foundation, a private organization for the welfare of disadvantaged and at-risk children and youth, which provides counseling, shelter, skills, and proper schooling.
Now a successful entrepreneur, Rivera is a volunteer worker for disadvantaged children. She wants to pursue being an advocate of mental health issues that have affected many Filipinos during this time of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, Lucas blew away the pageant press with her eloquent, witty, and almost perfect answers to the questions thrown at her during the virtual meet-and-greet session.
Lucas, 43, is a single mother from the province of Rizal, is competing in her first-ever beauty pageant.
A graduate of Interior Design at the University of the Philippines and currently the president of ECOP Rizal, Lucas intends to deliver and make more meaningful the platform of the Mrs. Universe Philippines Foundation, Inc. if she wins the title.
An entrepreneur, interior designer, chef, restaurateur and business coach all at the same time, Lucas is bringing to the pageant her advocacy on Entrepreneurship as a way of life, to be self-reliant and self-made and not merely rely on a job as the only source of livelihood.
“My goal is to create and support more women and children to embrace Entrepreneurship,” the young mother of three stressed. “For me success is not about how much you achieved, how much do you have, but being happy and self-fulfilled. I’m happy with my children and I don’t look for others to find happiness,” said Lucas who favors divorce in the country.
“I hope to inspire all mothers to embrace positiveness and to have a mindset to be strong to carry on despite the limited resources brought about by the pandemic,” Lucas said when asked what would she like to tell married women facing stress and difficulty coping with the present health crisis.
Lucas said she’s seven on the scale of ten as far as her physical preparedness for the pageant but hoped to be 100 percent ready come pageant finals.
Aside from the Mrs. Universe Philippines 2021 crown, two other titles, Mrs. Pacific Continental 2021 and Mrs. North Pacific Asia 2021, are at stake at the Coronation Night set on Sept. 10, barring any hitch, at Okada Manila.
The winner will represent the country at the Mrs. Universe International 2021 pageant to be held in Seoul, South Korea as confirmed by the Mrs. Universe Philippines organization, headed by Maria Charo Calalo, national franchise director.