The Humanities and Letters (HUMLET) cluster takes the crown for the fiesta’s Star Search competition for the third consecutive year.

HUMLET was followed by Natural Sciences and Mathematics (NSM) cluster who took 1st runner-up and School of Engineering and Architecture (SEA) who won 2nd runner-up.

The Star Search 2019 champion, Abigail Monteagudo, here performed her rendition of the Broadway song “I’m a Star” and “I’d Give My Life for You” by Lea Salonga.

Monteagudo confessed that she had doubts about winning and went through countless preparations for the competition.

“It’s a tough competition. A lot of people are great and are very good performing,” she shared.

She also explained how her support system from the HUMLET cluster helped amidst the pressure for a three-peat.

“I’m lucky to have a strong support system and I’m lucky to have training and people who helped me to become a better performer,” she added.

First runner up and NSM contestant Rhoyd Pilapil also displayed confidence and stage presence as the audience sang along to his rendition of Lightning from the musical film Grease and Raise a Little Hell by the Original Broadway Cast.

SEA performer Samantha Rubia, on the other hand, portrayed her sassy version of the Broadway song “Popular” from Wicked and elegantly sang “Part of Your World” from the classic animation The Little Mermaid.

The competition consisted of two rounds wherein contestants had to perform an upbeat and a ballad song.

Scores were calculated according to stage performance (40 percent), musicality (40 percent), and adherence to the theme (20 percent) which is Broadway.

Complications arose when Computer Science (CS) contestant Guillian Adriatico was forced to back out of the competition due to an asthma attack.

The preceding performance from the Accountancy cluster used sprays that contained aerosols which lingered on stage and triggered the attack.

The incident dismayed CS representative Adrheinelle Taghoy as Adriatico, and the cluster took great effort in preparing for the Star Search.

“She [Adriatico] worked hard for two weeks to take strict discipline and care for her lungs kasi she knows she’s asthmatic… Ganun lang nasayang kasi [of] somebody else’s props,” Taghoy said.

Despite the disappointment, Taghoy shared that the cluster does not hold a grudge to the previous performers.

“We don’t have anything against other clusters. It’s just that we’re sad with what happened,” she explained.

SAMAHAN Secretary-General Renz Lacorte stated that the situation was unpredictable and that the student council will take this incident as a lesson to monitor future props.

“That was very unexpected. What we could do in the future is to check all the materials used by the performers so that it won’t happen again,” he said.

The Star Search 2019 was held yesterday evening at the Finster Auditorium.