GIRL POWER. Mutya Ning Kapampangan 2012 candidates dance “gangnam style” in front of the newly-opened AirAsia Café on Wednesday.
Photo by Joey Pavia
CLARK FREEPORT – Philippines’ AirAsia, which is set to launch new direct flights to Taiwan and Singapore in two weeks from its hub here, will work with Gov. Lilia G. Pineda for the promotion of Pampanga’s tourism sites.
AirAsia CEO Marianne Hontiveros, in statements released by the budget airlines’ public relations department on Wednesday, said they will tap the major winners of the Mutya Ning Kapampangan 2012 for the promotion of the tourism destinations and “the genuine Kapampangan beauty.”
“AirAsia wants to work on a long term basis with Gov. Pineda and her people. We want the ‘Mutyas’ to help us promote Clark and Pampanga,” said Hontiveros at the opening of the AirAsia café at Clark International Airport (CIA) arrival area.
AirAsia thanked Board Member Olga Frances “Fritzie” David-Dizon, pageant chairperson, for bringing to the event 20 of the 22 candidates who danced in front of newly-opened café “gangnam style.”
“It’s the start of great things when both the private and public sectors work together for the common good and to push for the tourism industry in Pampanga,” said David-Dizon.
Pineda, in a phone interview on Thursday, said the “old churches in Pampanga are the premiere destinations” that could attract local and international tourists. She cited the 440-year-old St. Augustine parish church in their hometown of Lubao as one of them.
Senior Board Member Cris Garbo, for his part, said he had filed an ordinance “institutionalizing” the five major winners of the annual pageant “as ambassadors of goodwill” who will join the governor and other officials in welcoming visitors and help promote the province’s products and destinations.
The pre-pageant is on December 7 at 4:00 p.m. in SM City Clark, Angeles City. The coronation night is on December 10 at the Bren Z. Guiao Convention Center in the City of San Fernando.
