Some groups may dismiss beauty contests as exploitative of women, but Limgas na Dayat  (sea maiden) 2006 Jamile Ann Aggabao said winning the contest enabled her to help her father seek medical attention.

The Limgas na Dayat beauty tilt is one of the main features of annual Pista’y Dayat (sea festival) celebration being managed by the provincial government. Aggabao was crowned by Governor Victor Agbayani and Mutya ng Pilipinas 2003 Jamie Liz Castillo on April 30.

Aggabao, 20, said she joined the contest thinking that if she won the top prize of P75,000, she will use the money for the medical needs of her father who had been suffering from a stomach ailment for  years.

His father Hejesipo Omar Aggabao, 47, was able to save enough money for CT Scan last year to find out what was troubling him. But since it was enrolment time and her daughter needed the money, he decided to forego the medical process, the young girl said, unable to fight back tears.
 
   Aggabao is an incoming fourth year nursing student of the St. Louis University in Baguio City and her school expenses is paid for by Pangasinan Sixth District Rep. Conrado Estrella III.

“My father’s sacrifice was a burden that I have been carrying since I know the pain he was going through and we do not even know what is ailing him. Now, he can undergo the CT scan because we have the extra money,” the beauty queen from Sta. Maria town said.

“I don’t want to see him in pain. I am able to help patients but I can’t help my own father. He always says he was okay but I know he is suffering,” she added.

Her father was also crying when informed by telephone that her daughter won. “She sacrificed for my sake,” Aggabao quoted her father. This is because for every day that she is absent from hospital duty, she has to “pay” for four days. The contest took her away for six days from hospital duty which meant 24 days “payment.”

She was thus in a hurry to go back to Baguio City a day after the contest so she can go back to the hospital “and won’t add another day to my absences.” 

Her father used to help her mother Imelda in her small hair products manufacturing business. But his constant stomach aches hinder him from doing so now. The burden of raising 11 children, three of whom are in college, lies with Imelda.

It was actually the mother who encouraged the young girl from joining beauty  contests. Aggabao wore two titles already – Miss Sta. Maria 2004, Miss Rosales 2000. She was also Miss Tourism Baguio 2005.

The titles carry with them cash awards like P5,000 and P25,000 “but the money is easily gone because we are such a big family,” she said.

Aggabao said if she can have her way, it will be her father and mother who will use the three-day Hong Kong trip award “because I will still have other chances to travel.”
 
She said all of the finalists were deserving of the title but she prayed hard, telling God: “You know who need to win most.”

Her mother Imelda was there to cheer her on, even using the P2,000 money from the organizers to hire a truck so she can bring some villagemates to the contest venue at the Gov. Aguedo Agbayani Park.