By Freddie G. Lazaro
Fifteen gorgeous young ladies from the eight branch offices of the National Tobacco Administration (NTA) will compete in the search for 2025 Miss Tobacco Philippines for the upcoming Tobacco Festival in Candon City, Ilocos Sur on March 26, 2025.
The beauty pageant, now in its third year, is one of the main highlights of the annual Tobacco Festival, which is expected to attract and entertain thousands of residents, visitors, and tourists in Ilocos.
NTA Administrator and CEO Belinda S. Sanchez said the Candon City government in collaboration with the NTA launched the considered national beauty contest as a tribute to the hard work and resiliency of the country’s tobacco farmers.
She cited that the pageant is not just about beauty but also about advocating the empowerment of young women from tobacco-producing areas, which is in line with the ongoing celebration of National Women’s Month.
The pageant will also promote the potential of the tobacco industry which has been the source of livelihood of the 2.2 million Filipinos, who are financially dependent on tobacco including more than 430,000 farmers, farm workers, and their family members.
On March 1, the 15 candidates presented at the NTA Candon office before their pictorial session at the attractive facilities and premises of Hotel Van Gogh with the presence of Candon City Vice Mayor Kristelle Singson, the chairperson of the 2025 Search for Miss Tobacco Philippines.
The candidates represented the NTA branch offices in Ilocos Norte, Vigan, Candon, La Union, Pangasinan, Isabela, and Cagayan.
Before the crowning of the 2025 Miss Tobacco Philippines at the Candon City Arena on March 26, a talent competition is set for March 25 at the Candon Civic Center.
Candon City Mayor Eric D. Singson said the celebration of the Tobacco Festival is dedicated to the sacrifices of the tobacco farmers whom he cited as the modern heroes.
He said that the tobacco farmers have played a major role in the existence of the industry pouring – in hundreds of millions of funds shared for all the tobacco–producing local government units (LGUs) from the tobacco excise tax collections.
The Candon City’s Tobacco Festival, which formally started in March 2001, is also a thanksgiving event for the bounty that the farmers continue to earn from their labors in their tobacco farmlands.
The city government institutionalized the “Tobacco Festival” as the brand name of its annual fest considering the city as the biggest producer of the flue-cured Virginia Tobacco and touted as the country’s capital of Virginia tobacco.
“The Tobacco Festival is a festival of agriculture and history every March as we simultaneously mark the commemoration of the historic Cry of Candon of the Philippine Revolution and the Candon cityhood on the 25th day and the 28th day, respectively,” Mayor Singson said.
This year’s eight-day 2025 Tobacco Festival is set for March 21 – 28. The crowning of the Miss Tobacco Philippines will also coincide with the display of the globally famous Candon Calamay during the Agriculture and Tobacco Day at the Candon South Central School Oval. (Freddie G. Lazaro/DA – NTA)