Opal Enriquez Explains Her Release on Rebecca Rath

By Renee Trujillo

Updated: May 29, 2017

Last week Thursday we reported on two leaked statements from Opal Enriquez, the National Director of the Queen of the Jewel Organization. Those two statements with the letter head of the National Institute of Culture and History, NICH, were named, “Miss Belize-Crown Chronicles” and it was a direct response to Tony Rath’s“The Rocky Road to Miss Universe” and all the allegations he wrote about Enriquez. In his five online articlesRath accuses Enriquez of sabotaging and bullying Rebecca Rath. In her first statement, Enriquez stated that she did not steal any money and she did not bully or sabotages Rath. In her second statement, Enriquez speaks about her resigning from the National Director post. After Love News reported on the leaked statements on Thursday night we were told that a revised statement would be release by the National Institute of Culture and History. The ‘revised’ statement has also been leaked. It also bears the NICH’s letter head but according to NICH, it has nothing to do with it.  NICH says quote, “The NICH Logo was inadvertently place in the press release”. End of quote. NICH says that it does own the ‘Miss Belize’ name and has given the Queen of the Jewel Organization permission to use the name for the purpose of coronation of a Miss Belize which was done in 2016 with Rebecca Rath. But after reigning as Miss Belize for eight months, her tittle has been taken from her by Enriquez. Enriquez states that there will be no quote, “commencement of a 2017 Miss Belize Pageant. Effective immediately, the official title of Miss Belize 2017 and all affiliated duties as the reigning Miss Belize will pass to our 2016 first runner up, Marcia Moody…” end of quote. So does this mean that Rebecca Rath has been dethroned as Miss Belize before her time? According to Enriquez, no.

OPAL ENRIQUEZ

“Actually it was my decision I spoke to a few of my advisors about it and ultimately it was a decision that we made and Rebecca is not dethroned let me make that clear. Let me explain to you what is happening. Belize is not going to Ms. Universe in 2017. From my understanding what I was made to understand by Miss Universe is that Belize does not have a contract for this year, the contracts are renewed annually several parties applied for it from Belize and to date none have been awarded and the season for issuing the contract has passed so that means ultimately that Belize will not be participating in the Miss Universe this year. I made it clear to the organization that I would be taking a break, that I would not be in the running’s this year for going to Miss Universe because I have taken a lot of time, work time in order to produce a pageant. I it is time consuming and it takes a lot away from the fact that I do live in Los Angeles , this is where my livelihood happens so I am not free to travel to Belize as often as I did before because of work. So with that said I’m not holding a Miss Belize Pageant for 2017. The contracts for Miss Universe are annual so since there will be no Miss Belize pageant for 2017 Rebecca does not have a Miss Belize Universe to crown for 2017. So I made a decision, we have another pageant, another contract for Miss International and Marcia Moody is the first runner up, she is able to go to Miss International, give her the opportunity to be Miss Belize to get some real experience to have an opportunity to become an ambassador and be prepared to represent Belize in just a few months. That pageant happens later this year, Rebecca has made it clear to me that she doesn’t want to do any more pageants so she has had an excellent time being Miss Belize, she did a wonderful job representing us at Miss Universe she keeps her title as Miss Belize Universe 2016, she will crown Miss Belize Universe 2018.”

It has been widely publicize that Enriquez does not enjoy an amicable relationship with Rebecca Rath and her parents. In fact, we can even say that she no longer wants to work with them anymore. But, did the relationship or lack thereof, influence Enriquez in making her decision?  Here is how she responded to that question:

OPAL ENRIQUEZ

“Lets be real, I don’t want to work with the Raths any more I really don’t because who wants to work with people who call you sensationalized names and say lot of things about you and make it abundantly clear that they are not comfortable working with you. Rebecca has made it clear that she doesn’t want to do any more pageants. If I were to work with Rebecca I would have to work with her parents. So part of that is let’s not live this lie anymore. You know Rebecca and her family have been branding her outside the Miss Belize that I am the director of, they have been doing all of their appearances I knew nothing about a car that was being purchased; I was not contacted for that. I got a message from the director of Miss Cayman saying that ‘your queen is here’ why aren’t you here, I knew nothing about Rebecca going to Cayman. So I don’t want to leave myself open to being in a position to say ‘ I don’t know what’s going on with my queen. I don’t know what is happening.’ I don’t want to feel like I’m being disrespected. I’m sure Rebecca doesn’t want to feel like she is being disregarded. We want her to continue to have a promising career all we want to do is function and move forward for everybody to be positive and for Belize to be happy. My vision for Belize is very big, after all we would not have made it back to Miss Universe if myself and the people that I work with didn’t have a huge vision.”

HIPOLITO NOVELO

“And you deny everything that Tony Rath said in his five articles.”

OPAL ENRIQUEZ

“Like I said it was a rocky road for both of us, it was not a pleasant experience; I don’t appreciate my character being attacked at all so no I think a lot of those allegations are just not true. I don’t really care to revisit that, it’s not a happy place for me. You’ve read the points that I have addressed you know the things that are not true, I am not a charlatan or a narcissist; it paints this vilified picture of the person that I am and its very unkind and unnecessary.”

HIPOLITO NOVELO

“We understood that you are consulting a lawyer in terms of legal advice has that decision been made ? That you will not follow any legal action against the Raths.”

OPAL ENRIQUEZ

“Again like I said I don’t want to go down a bitter and negative road with anybody. An eye for any eye leaves us both blind so for me to say that I’m going to sue Tony Rath for defaming me, I’m going to sue Tony Rath for telling lies about me. I’m going to sue Tony Rath for writing fiction when he’s a writer it’s something that I could do but honestly I simply don’t have the time.”

Rebecca Rath issued a statement via her Facebook page this morning. It reads quote, “Like many Belizeans I learned via the local news on May 26 that my position as Miss Belize Universe 2016-2017 had ended ‘effective immediately’ after 8 months. Though no reason was given, the public release was on the letterhead of the Queen of the Jewel Ltd and the National Institute of Culture and History. This indicates a corporate decision…….” End of quote. In the statement, Rath speaks about the “life changing experience”  and it is important to quote, “stand up for your beliefs, to work hard for what you want and to never let anyone’s dishonesty or pretensions kill your spirit or dampen your enthusiasm to achieve your goal and to do good things.” End of quote. As Enriquez said the second runner up for Miss Belize 2016, Marcia Moody has been selected to participate in Miss International 2017 in Tokyo, Japan. Enriquez who has said that she is taking time off from the Miss Belize pageant this year because her time is limited explained how she will prepare Moody for the Miss International 2017.

HIPOLITO NOVELO

“You talk about not having enough time to come to Belize, how would that work out with Marcia Moody and Miss International later?”

OPAL ENRIQUEZ

“I’m so glad you asked that question because that is a question I have wanted to answer. Part of this job is the girls come to California and they stay with me, this was not something that the Rash’s would want to do. They wouldn’t want to come to Los Angeles and stay to my house and the girls who I send to pageant they basically come and move in with me for months often. Marcia is free to do that but I cannot come to Belize. You know I want it to be clear that being the director of Miss Belize is a volunteered situation it’s not salaried so Marcia can come to California to come train with me I have people in Belize that I have put in place to assist her with everything that she needs to get done in order to prepare so I would basically be acting on a consultant basis based on my schedule. Marcia is okay with that, she is a strong performer, she is a smart girl and we have discussed this already to where ‘listen you’re going to be making appearances to Miss Belize to garner sponsorship and to garner support and assistance we want you to be in the best position to be able to do that. You can come here to California and stay with my while I got to work and I send you off to different events and trainings with different people to the gym, the makeup artists, hairstylist, when I get off work we can work together, work with you on your walk and speeches.’ this is the way I train the girls who come to stay with me.”

HIPOLITO NOVELO

“Miss International takes place when and where?”

OPAL ENRIQUEZ

“It’s in Japan and it’s in either October or November but it gives Marcia five months to really get ready and we want Belize to look good that is the point, we want Belize to do well even if we did do a pageant this year it would have been done early, it would not have been done in September not to conflict with the celebrations and because we want to give that delegate, that ambassador enough time to be an ambassador and really prepare and have a fighting chance.”

Miss International is a Tokyo-based international beauty pageant organized by The International Culture Association.

http://lovefm.com/2017/05/29/opal-enriquez-explains-her-release-on-rebecca-rath/