Beside the usual assurances of tight security, the Philippine government has pledged that it won’t close roads or hide street dwellers while holding the Miss Universe pageant in January as pageant candidates began arriving in Manila on Friday.
President Rodrigo Duterte did not like what happened during the visits of US President Barack Obama and Pope Francis, and Manila’s hosting of the APEC summit when street dwellers were picked up by authorities and hidden in resorts, Manila Times quoted Tourism Undersecretary Katherine de Castro as saying.
“When we presented it to President Duterte that’s the first thing he said. Don’t close the roads, don’t hide people. Let’s show that despite poverty, there is beauty in this country,” she reportedly said in a news conference in Malacañang.
Interior Undersecretary Emily Padilla was quoted as saying that the government would mobilize “to the hilt” resources to secure the pageant, which will be broadcast worldwide from the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City on January 30, 2017.
“We cannot afford any lapses in security, our enforcement agencies will make sure that there will be a safe and successful holding of the Miss Universe,” Padilla reportedly said.
January will be busy for law enforcement agencies because, aside from the Miss Universe pageant, meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) will also be held in Manila, the report said.
“We have managed to show the world already that we are capable of providing security to major events, like the papal visit and the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation), and now the Asean which will coincide with this Miss Universe,” Padilla was quoted as saying.
Padilla reportedly said there was no specific security threat to the pageant.
Aside from the Mall of Asia Arena, Miss Universe pageant events will take place in Cebu, Vigan and Siargao, among other venues, said the news portal.
President Duterte, who is invited to the show, will meet the Miss Universe candidates in the Palace on January 23, de Castro reportedly said.
Pageant bets reportedly arrived in Manila on Friday ahead of the welcome party for the 65th Miss Universe candidates to be held at the Conrad Hotel in Pasay City on Saturday.
Half-Filipina Tania Pauline Dawson of New Zealand was the first to arrive at 3:20 a.m. on board Philippine Airlines Flight PR 219, while Deshauna Barber of the United States came in at around 4:45 a.m. on board PR 103. Also spotted at the Manila airport was Miss Korea Jenny Kim, reported Manila Times.
De Castro and former Ilocos Sur governor Luis “Chavit” Singson, chairman of the pageant’s private partners, welcomed the Miss Universe hopefuls, the report said.
