IF RESULTS of the inquiry support her, Kimberley Therese Burden wants Miss Cebu pageant organizers and Cebu City officials to admit that the coronation night fiasco was not just an honest mistake.
The Burden family said they just want organizers to correct mistakes they made to spare other candidates from humiliation in the future.
If the investigating panel does not decide in their favor, the family said they will keep their options open, including legal action because “we have very solid grounds for bringing this to court.”
Appearing before the media for the first time since the Jan. 14 pageant, 19-year-old Kimberley said she expects to get justice when Acting Vice Mayor Hilario Davide III releases today the findings of the three-man investigating panel.
The team that Davide commissioned to investigate the allegations of the Burden family finished their inquiry yesterday, but he said he will disclose the result to the media anytime today.
The Burden family said there were irregularities in the selection, judging and screening of the Miss Cebu candidates, and the erroneous awarding of the Globe Texters’ Choice Award to Miss Cebu 2009 Kris Tiffany Janson.
Dr. Rowena Burden said her daughter was humiliated when the pageant host called out Janson’s name and gave the award to her, when Kimberley was the rightful winner of the award.
Organizers claimed that an “honest mistake” was made that night.
“I have very high regards for Vice Mayor Davide. Just like his father, they are beacons of justice, that is why I expect to get the same justice from the team,” Kimberley told a press conference at her residence yesterday.
“Although the sector that organized the pageant is the same sector conducting the inquiry, I’m still expecting the truth, justice and fairness to come out. But if the results are not in our favor, our consolation is that we know the truth, that it was not an honest mistake,” she said.
Dr. Burden said that their hopes for an impartial investigation are very low, given Acting Mayor Michael Rama’s reaction to the incident.
She told reporters yesterday that Rama was adding insult to injury when during the awarding ceremony of the Sinulog photo contest, the mayor asked the participants if he should be expecting another complaint “because of an honest mistake?”
“If the highest official of the city will attack you while an investigation that he himself ordered is ongoing, you already know what to expect,” Dr. Burden said.
Attack
She said the matter could have been settled on the night of the pageant had Rama intervened to make the corrections when she personally asked him to do so.
“You did not have the balls to go up that stage, you didn’t act like a real man and he’s still not acting like a real man. You write me a letter promising sincerity and forgiveness and you attack my daughter while the investigation is ongoing?” she said.
The Burden family said they will not force the organizers to apologize for the incident, but they hope the system within the Miss Cebu pageant will be corrected.
As for comments that she is being a sore loser and is a bitter candidate, Kimberley, a physical therapy student, said she is just fighting for what she believes in.
“You will never understand if you’re not in my place. What might be completely trivial to you might be the most important thing for me... If that award is rightfully yours and it was not given to you, something is wrong there,” she said.
(LCR)
Miss Cebu 2009 probe
Originally Posted by eax
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