“We have a President who comes from Mindanao, and our Miss Universe is from Mindanao, so I think this is the best time for us to do the Miss Universe here in the Philippines”, she added.
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Reigning Miss Universe Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach along with the officials from the Miss Universe Organization last week met with Duterte in a courtesy call at Malacañang to convince him to accept the Philippine bid to hold the pageant here.
“The Philippine government will not be giving a “single centavo” [to Miss Universe] except of course in terms of services, in terms of protection, in terms of security, but not in actual cash”, Abella said at a press conference streamed online. “It will be the private sector who would shoulder the expenses”, Teo assured.
The coveted Miss Universe 2016 pageant is slated to be held in the Philippines on January 30, 2017.
Other events related to the pageant are expected to be held in several tourist spots in the country, including Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Palawan, Boracay, Cebu and Vigan. His major concern was spending. “We don’t know when the news report came that he didn’t like it”, De Castro said.
However, the Tourism Secretary later sought Malacanang’s permission to finally announce the date to clarify that it will indeed push through.
If Filipinos didn’t get enough of the Miss Universe pageant this year with its own contestant winning the crown, they’re about to get a second wave when Manila plays host to the worldwide beauty pageant next year. This will be the third time when the Philippines will be seen hosting the Miss Universe pageant. The country first hosted the pageant in 1974, when Margie Moran relinquished her title to Amparo Muñoz of Spain.
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Here’s Wurtzbach at a recent meeting with President Duterte.
