MANILA, Philippines - In ancient times, power was often wrested away through war, brute force and political cunning. Kings and conquerors alike had to be ruthless as they clung to power, sometimes using women as pawns in their deadly games.

Over the centuries, women too have learned to play the game, sometimes using their wiles to turn things around.. From Cleopatra to Helen of Troy to Madame de Pompadour to Marilyn Monroe to Angelina Jolie, some of the world?s greatest beauties have used the natural attraction between the sexes to pursue and achieve their goals. Men like Julius Caesar, the Trojan Prince Paris, King Louis XV, Joe DiMaggio and Brad Pitt?all found themselves slaves to a pretty face.

In the realm of power, beauty, I must say, is the greatest of players. It is able to enslave kings and emperors, command an army, divide a nation, and break hearts. Beauty?s prototype is the goddess Aphrodite, representing a powerful male fantasy of a highly sexual, supremely confident alluring female offering endless pleasure, a bit of danger and the enticing promise of things yet to come. Yes, beauty can reign supreme over power.

For this same reason, Dr. Vicki Belo, founder and director of the Belo Medical Group, has become one of the most successful dermatologists and cosmetic surgeons in town. ?My goal is to make every Filipino beautiful, from the rich to the poor,? she was once quoted in an interview.

True to her word, she has transformed scores of women, including myself. From an unhealthy size 18 to a stunning size 6 (sometimes a 4 or even a 2) in less than six months, I found my size and my life shaped by Belo. But it was not an overnight miracle: The perfection of beauty is a continuous, often tortuous, painful and expensive quest. It requires discipline and utmost belief, faith and confidence in your doctor in the pursuit of your beauty ideal.

To date, I have had a total of seven to eight surgeries (including Buccal Fat reduction to contour the face, a procedure not yet popular in the Philippines but which is a regular practice among Hollywood celebrities), the last three done by Dr. Belo herself. My last surgery, done in March this year, was made to flatten my upper tummy using the WAL (or Water Assisted Liposuction) Technique, This painless procedure, performed under light sedation, ensures minimal trauma and less downtime for the patient.
Nowadays, I keep my post-surgical body maintained by doing regular rounds of RF (Radio Frequency), a non-invasive procedure that utilizes monopolar radio frequency to provide deep tissue heating causing lipolysis, detoxification and lymphatic drainage. This results in effective, non-surgical body and facial contouring. It also helps promote skin tightening and the improvement of skin texture and is ideal for the treatment of stretch marks, sagging skin and cellulite. Combined with lipo-dissolve and endermologie, these modalities provide the safest and most advanced alternatives to surgical intervention.

So people ask, why do women go to such painful and expensive lengths to achieve beauty? Dr. Windie Villarica-Hayano of the dermatological group Skin Inc., says, ?I think it?s because beauty is power. The whole quest for beauty moves people to do things like launching a thousand ships. And now, more than ever, people have come to see beauty as a commodity. It can be traded. It can buy you things. It gets you to places you?ve only dreamed of. For example, between two equally qualified applicants, you?re bound to hire the prettier one. It?s a cruel reality, but a reality nonetheless.?

And so I continue my quest, a never ending journey that consists of frequent visits to my favourite dermatological and cosmetic clinics, pulsed light hair removal (who needs to shave these days?), laser leg vein treatments, anti-cellulite machines, body contouring, facials and just about every treatment I can find that will help me stay ageless like a true goddess.

My efforts have sometimes provoked concern and alarm. Recently a friend asked: when will you stop? I guess the most honest answer to that question is: the day I stop looking at myself in the mirror.