Miss U 2017 Not in PH

The hosting of Miss Universe 2017 in the Philippines is a no go according to Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo in a press conference at the International Conference on Sustainable Tourism for Development this Thursday. 

"No Miss Universe this year. Baka Next year." Sec. Teo said.

It has been reported that Sec. Teo revealed that the Miss Universe Organization offered them, the DOT, the hosting rights of the 66th edition of the pageant in our country later this year. Speculations grew bigger as MUO President Paula Shugart and MUO VP Shawn McClain  visited the Philippines last week for a charity events. According to "insider reports" aside from the charity event, the MUO went back to the country to finalize the deal on having the pageant again in the Philippines.

A post shared by Queens of the PHILIPPINES ✨👑🇵🇭 (@queens.ph) on Jun 11, 2017 at 2:11am PDT

According to designer and pageant afficionado, Rene Salud, who had spoken to the Tourism chief about the matter, Sec. Teo had long talks with Solar CEO Wilson Tieng, who's supposedly partnering with DOT. Tieng and other investors advised Sec. Teo that hosting the pageant twice in a year may not be fitting because the success of the 65th Miss Universe is quite hard to be surpassed. They also considered the current events, the ongoing Marawi siege, in example. The Tourism chief was open to the suggestion and decided to move the hosting of the pageant to maybe next year. 

For me, this is a wise decision. Hosting the most prestigious pageant of all, twice in a year, requires a lot of work, most especially in the financial aspect. I'm not downsizing the capabilities of our private sectors, but I think it's not bad to be practical these days. Plus, considering the things that had happened and are happening in our country, maybe it's good to take a step back in holding major international events like Miss Universe. You know what they say, it's better to be safe than to be sorry. Maybe let all those bad things pass until we have fully recovered, from then on we are again ready to welcome the most beautiful women around the universe and crown the destined one.

Who knows, since Sec. Teo said that maybe Philippines will host next year, maybe the 66th edition will be held in the same time frame of the previous one.