Herlene Budol, more commonly known as Hipon Girl, got famous when she joined Willie Revillame’s Wowowin variety show. She captured the hearts of viewers with her witty and jologs remarks in 2019, and even became a co-host of the show for a while.

The said show opened doors and big opportunities for rising comedienne Herlene, she got casted as character Maganda for a series in GMA 7 called False Positive, together with stars Xian Lim and Glaiza De Castro.

It became even bigger news when she was announced to be joining the most prestigious and talked about pageant in  the Philippines, Binibining Pilipinas, where the winners are set to compete for other international pageants representing the Philippines.

Just last Saturday, one of the traditional activities of Binibining Pilipinas, the Grand Santacruzan took place at Araneta in Quezon City. The return of the Grand Santacruzan was a first after 3 years of no shows since the pandemic started. The top 40 candidates showed off their Filipiniana-inspired gowns, together with 2021 Binibining Pilipinas Queens, and Miss International 2005 Lara Quigaman.

Hipon girl the comedienne, wore a pink mermaid gown embellished with blue pearls and gold details, paired with a huge gold-rays headdress, as seen on Binibining Pilipinas’ Facebook page. Hipon girl’s gown was the creation of Geronie Labora, a fashion designer from Zamboanga City. The said gown cost 150,000 pesos. Herlene claims that she was ecstatic about the Grand Santacruzan Flores de Mayo because it’s always been her dream to join one in her hometown and she was given the chance to participate in one for Binibining Pilipinas. 

Herlene continues to be one of the most talked about candidates in the Binibining Pilipinas because of her image being a comedienne, former co-host of Wowowin, and her former pageant experiences or lack thereof. 

In a previous interview on GMA7’s docu-reality Tunay na Buhay, Herlene, who opened up about her life before becoming famous on TV, said her Hipon girl nickname actually came from an experience in a pageant. She had been participating in amateur beauty pageants since grade school. She said she would always lose in every pageant, but her failed attempts did not worry her because that meant she could join again for the next year. 

WIll her prior experiences in amateur and local pageants be enough for her Binibini endeavor? Guess we’ll all find out soon enough!

On an exclusive interview with the Lookout during the Grand Santacruzan event, Herlene was asked what was her biggest preparation for the grand coronation for Binibining Pilipinas, which she answered: “Para sa akin po wala pong maliit na prepation kung hindi lahat ng preparation ko is malaki kasi gusto ko po na haharap ako sa lahat ng tao, sa buong Pilipinas na full packed po ako” (For me there are no small preparations but rather all my preparations are considered big because I want to go all out when I face the people, and the whole country)

Herlene was also asked about her comment regarding people commenting or bashing on the fact that beauty queens go through enhancement of features or big transformation when they join pageants to which she answered in Filipino: It’s okay, there’s no problem commenting because it’s a free country, you can do whatever you want. But for me they are lowering the confidence of other people, but that’s okay because that’s only their opinion. We beauty queens try to improve ourselves and be a good example for everyone.

Although Herlene never confirmed going through enhancement of features or big transformation, it’s quite plain to point out the obvious. Herlene says that there aren't many sacrifices to be made for her Binibini journey because she’s doing it for herself; “Para ma-improve ‘yong sarili ko, hindi ko po babaguhin si Hipon, Hipon will always be a Hipon, madadagdagan lang po si Hipon, Binibini candidate number 8 Herlene Nicole Budol from the art capital of the Philippines, Angono Rizal!”