MANILA: The Miss Universe fans in the Philippines are rejoicing, as the most prestigious beauty pageant in the world, or the universe rather, will be held in the country after two decades.
“I would like to inform everybody that the Miss Universe pageant will be on January 30, 2017 in the Philippines,” said Teo. “The government is not going to spend any single centavo. It will be the private sector who would shoulder the expenses,” said Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo at a press conference in Makati on Thursday, July 28.
Earlier, President Rodrigo Duterte said that he would not spend government funds on hosting the Miss Universe pageant – leading some to believe that the plans to hold the pageant in the country would not push through.
At the press conference, it was mentioned that the funding would come from the private sector.
“Private sector will handle the expenses. The president’s concern was the ‘gastos’. But when we assured him that there will be no funding from the government. He said, okay. ‘This is already okay’ so we don’t know where the news report came from that he did not like it. He never said that,” Tourism Undersecretary Kat de Castro said on the sidelines of the press briefing.
De Castro said her department got in touch Shawn McClain, the vice-president of Business Development and Marketing at the Miss Universe Organization, to iron out issues.
“They got in touch with me this morning. Shawn McClain, who is the VP at Miss U, was shocked when that article came out because everyone was already on board. The article says the president doesn’t want it to happen,” De Castro said.
