Mister International 2014/15 Neil Perez and the surprise fireworks during his victory party (Photo credit: Jhosh Rodriguez)
Happy, fulfilled and more confident than ever, that's our Neil (Photo credit: Jhosh Rodriguez)
After making a crowd-filled courtesy call to Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada (photo below) at the City Hall, he went to White Knight Hotel in Intramuros (pit stop for the next activity) to prepare for the Motorcade run that paraded him along the stretch of Roxas Boulevard all the way to Macapagal Avenue and SM Mall of Asia and ended at the venue of his homecoming victory party at One Esplanade where the press, throngs of adoring fans, units of the Philippine National Police and members of his family and friends from Tondo awaited his arrival.
Neil made his grand entrance to the party with much funfare (and red-and-blue balloons) as can be seen in the short video below.
Neil during his grand entrance to the party (Photo credit: Edmund Chua)
Mister International 2014/15 Neil Perez during his courtesy call to Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada (Photo credit: Joy Arguil)
Neil during his motorcade yesterday afternoon (Photo credit: Edmund Chua for Fabmanilaph)
I was already dead tired when this shot was taken, but Neil remains to be fresh and cuddly. (Photo credit: Jhosh Rodriguez)
In the case of Neil, everyone at the party agreed that he now has a newly-found level of presence and aura that seemed to be in hiding before leaving for Korea three weeks ago. When he was asked to deliver his thank-you message last night, he did so with such flair that words spilled out of his mouth with relaxed spontaneity.
I casually asked who among his four runners-up deserved the win just as much as he did. Without a pause, he quickly singled out Czech Republic (Tomas Dumbrovsky) because he got to know the guy’s level-headed personality on a deeper level and thought that he was the candidate to beat during the finals.
By the way, did you know that our Neil is quite popular with some pageant fans in Central Europe? He actually had a Skype session with his followers from Poland and that’s when he realized how much he has endeared himself to them. And travel-wise, he already has a number of foreign trips on his slate. Next month, he will be in Bangkok for Mister Global 2015. After that, he is scheduled to fly to Prague for a personal appearance and to attend another pageant.
Neil is now a certified celebrity. But he remains down-to-earth and unaffected by all the trappings of fame. I sincerely hope that he remains that way all throughout his reign. :-)
P.S. Our King will be guest judge on ABS-CBN’s ‘It’s Showtime’ for the entire week starting Monday, February 23. You can catch him there till the last day of the month.
