Miss Philippines did not make it to the top 5 and guess what that’s fine

by Pacifiqa Staff

(facebook.com/MissUniverse)

 

The Philippines’ Miss Universe bet Mary Jean Lastimosa made it to the pageant’s top ten. But unlike the four Misses who preceded her, MJ did not make it to the top five, excluding her from the much-awaited Q&A portion.

Which disappointed us a bit because we were excited about the possibility of MJ receiving her question from Manny Pacquiao. This year, two of the country’s favorite sports, boxing and pageantry, featured in the Miss Universe competition.

SPLR ALERT: our top five finalists!! Tune in for the question round on NBC now! #MissUniverse

A photo posted by Miss Universe (@missuniverse) on Jan 25, 2015 at 7:12pm PST

The contestant who got her question from Pacman was Miss USA. In the tradition of absurdly difficult beau-con questions, Pacquiao asked for Miss USA Nia Sanchez’s take on a relevant, though unlikely-to-happen-in-real-life, situation:

“If you are given 30 seconds to deliver a message to a global terrorist, what would you say?”

(Sure, terrorists would like to hear what a beauty queen has to say. World leaders just don’t cut it.)

Miss USA, true to the tropes of TV pageantry, answered, “I would just say that, you know as Miss USA, I’ll spread the message of hope and love and peace, and so I will do my best to spread that message to them and to everyone else in the world.”

The Miss Universe 2014 crown went to Miss Colombia Paulina Vega. The runner-ups, from first to fourth, were USA, Ukraine, Netherlands, and Jamaica.

Since 2010, Miss Philippines has made it to the top five of the competition. The country made a “major major” comeback in the Miss Universe scene when Maria Venus Raj placed 4th runner-up that year. Mexico’s Ximena Navarrete eventually brought home the crown.

In 2011, Shamcey Supsup placed 3rd runner-up to that year’s winner Leila Lopes of Angola.

We almost won the Miss Universe title in 2012 when Janine Tugonon was crowned first-runner up to Miss USA Olivia Culpo.

Ariella Arida placed 3rd runner-up the following year, with Gabriela Isler of Venezuela winning the title.

The Philippines has won two Miss Universe titles so far: Gloria Diaz in 1969 and Margie Moran in 1973.

Our lucky streak may have been broken, and pageant enthusiasts must be deeply sad today, but our consecutive near-misses remain something to write home about.