compiled by Rod Dingle
Maria Coronel is the winner of the very first Philippine Grand Fiesta’s Miss Philippines-Australia Beauty Pageant (1989) held in Sydney. She bested more than 20 other candidates from the Philippine Community in Australia. She is now working as an IT Specialist for a Sydney-based International company. She is married to Mannix and they now have 3 beautiful young daughters.
When asked what is her claim to fame, Maria Coronel answered: “I claim no fame. I am not famous at all. I live my life as anonymous and unknown as I could be.”
As a young girl, she wanted to be an astronaut. Her favourite cartoon heroine was Wonder Woman, saying that the crime fighter was an ‘understated woman’ who saves the world in a ‘drop dead’ super sexy outfit. Maria never made any attempt to dress up as Wonder Woman because she felt that she could not give justice to her costume.
A sentimentalist, Maria has kept some personal items she had when she was young. Among them is a Casio piano given to her by her dad when she was still in school. She will be passing it on to her daughters when they get a bit older.
She denies dancing in the shower but admits to singing like many of us. When asked if she ever sneaked out of the house without her parents knowing, her pert reply was “Never, honestly!”
Her most unforgettable experience was the day when her eldest daughter was born. “Didn’t think I had it in me to go through 15 hrs of labour, naturally and drug free. It would also be the funniest as it was then that I did all those tricks in the book for delivering a baby,” she said.
“Of course it was my happiest. It’s a fulfillment of every woman’s dream. To be a mother… I was so happy, I did it again. Super happy that I had twins the 2nd time around!” Maria added.
If she had the power to change anything, she would choose to have only one religion in this world. She said “that way, there would be no war. People can live in harmony, believing in only One Supreme Being, and co-exist with no feeling of supremacy over the other.”
She chose the Pope, if given the opportunity to speak to a world leader. “I would ask him to stop intervening with how people want to live their lives. God created all men as equals, so there should be no preference on whether people can be male, female, gay or bi [sexual]. I’d say live and let live. And as far as contraceptives are concerned, better to take them and not have children than have children and find them roasted in the microwave or thrown out from a window.”
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