The brand new Miss Universe Philippines (MUPh) organization, kicked off its official function of selecting the Philippine representative to this year’s Miss Universe pageant. Miss Universe Philippines 2011 Shamcey Supsup-Lee, national director of Miss Universe Philippines organization, led in the launching of the search on Wednesday.
Joining Shamcey during the launch were Miss Universe Philippines 2006 Lia Andrea Ramos, as head of Women Empowerment and Charity, and queen-maker Jonas Antonio Gaffud, as creative director of MUPh.
MUPh promises to bring out the best of the Filipina and make her an agent of meaningful change, to help her build her self-confidence to become a woman of substance and provide a platform for the best of Filipino creativity and championing socially-meaningful advocacies.
“We are looking for the right woman who is a leader, a phenomenal Filipina who is driven, and will inspire people with her beauty, charm, grace, ideas and causes,” said Shamcey.
“Each contestant is expected to be an ambassador of the Philippine islands before, during and even after the competition. They will train to become role models, to pursue her personal and professional goals while leaving and inspiring positive impact in society. Yes, former titlists from other pageants can compete,” Shamcey added.
Meanwhile, the former Miss Universe Philippines clarified that there’s no rivalry between MUPh and Binibining Pilipinas Charities, Inc., which used to handle the national pageant for Miss Universe. She said she will always be grateful to Jorge and Stella Araneta, the couple behind BPCI.
“For me, to be a product of Binibini… I would always say that I’m still a Binibini, always a Binibini. And I am really grateful for the opportunity that the Aranetas have given to me and to all of us. We will not be here [without them], so we’re grateful for that. And I feel like we can still support each other, even if we have separate pageants,” Shamcey said.
“I don’t think it should be a rivalry because what’s the point of having these pageants. We want to empower, we don’t want to look down on others or pull others down. That’s not what we are, that’s not what our direction is,” she concluded.
The final screening of applicants for MUPh was on Feb. 1 with the coronation night set on May 3 at the Mall of Asia Arena. For information, visit MUPHfacebook.com/TheMissUniversePH/