Manila: The Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, has “in principle” approved the proposal to host the Miss Universe pageant in the Philippines in 2017, according to sources.
The arrival of 2015 Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach from New York on Saturday morning, ahead of her scheduled courtesy call on President Duterte on Monday has confirmed the report.
“The president has agreed that sponsoring the event would be a tourism marketing coup with Philippines’ Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach at the helm,” Tourism Secretary Wanda Corazon Teo was quoted as saying by Gulf News. “Sponsoring Miss Universe is our focus right now, with the plan and sources of funding in tow. We are ready to seize the moment.”
“It will be an honor for Pia to come back to the Philippines and crown her successor here,” Teo reportedly said, adding that PhP500 million (Dh41.66 million) is needed for the event.
Included as places to be toured by the participants of the Miss Universe pageant were the famous beaches of Boracay in Aklan, central Philippines; El Nido, in Palawan, southwest Philippines; and Cebu in central Philippines, Teo added.
Since the event’s proposed date in January coincides with the festival of the Infant Jesus in Cebu, and the Chinese New Year, “we will ask the organizers to move it to May — a perfect month for the event in the Philippines,” Teo was quoted as saying. “The president will issue an executive order once the proposed hosting of the event in the Philippines is approved.”
Wurtzbach has actively campaigned for this, sources said.
Meanwhile, netizens on social media started calling on the government to improve the country’s airports and ease Metro Manila’s traffic congestion ahead of the event, said the Dubai-based news portal.
Several Miss Universe beauty pageants were held for the longest time in Long Beach, California from 1952 to 1959; and in Miami Beach, Florida from 1960 to 1971. Since then, other countries started hosting the event. The Philippines hosted it at Manila’s Cultural Center of the Philippines in 1974, and at the Philippine International Convention Center in 1994, the report said.
Wurtzbach reportedly became the third Filipina to become Miss Universe. The two others were Gloria Diaz and Margarita Moran in 1969 and 1973, respectively.
Three more Filipina beauty queens almost got the title before Wurtzbach’s ultimate victory in late 2015: Mary Jean Lastimosa was top 10 in 2014; Ariella Arida, third runner-up in 2013; and Janine Marie Tugonon, first runner-up in 2012, reported Gulf News.
Last September, American businessman and now presidential candidate Donald Trump bought the entire stock of the Miss Universe Organisation from NBC, but sold it to WME/IMG in the same year, the report said.
