Newly-established national pageant The Miss Philippines is making more changes to its rule.
The competition is opening its doors to mothers and married women for its inaugural pageant in October.
The pageant—the official name of which is The Miss Philippine Culture and Heritage Celebration—announced this on its social media pages on Friday, September 1.
“Single, married, or a mother— you are a Queen. And you are welcome to join The Miss Philippines! You don’t have to give up your dreams of joining a pageant yet because we believe that mothers and married women can be as effective as single women at being influencers and advocates of Philippine Culture and Heritage,” the announcement reads.
The pageant previously announced that The Miss Philippines applicants need to be single.
The qualifications are as follows:
- female
- of Filipino heritage
- 18 to 32 years old
There are no set height requirements.
The Miss Philippines, launched under the Miss Universe Philippines organization, will crown the country’s representatives to Miss Charm and Miss Supranational.
It earlier appointed Miss Supranational Philippines 2023 Pauline Amelinckx as its inaugural queen.
The pageant—which earlier described itself as “the newest, most innovative, and modern pageant in the Philippines”— earlier announced that it has scrapped the swimsuit and evening gown segments in its competition.
Instead, these pageant staples will be replaced by new formats such as a “major glam red carpet moment.”
In a separate post, The Miss Philippines also announced that its affiliate male pageant, Mister Pilipinas Worldwide, welcomes fathers and married men as applicants.
Both pageants will hold screening on September 9 at the Estancia Mall in Pasig City.
No longer necessary?
Pageant enthusiasts in the country welcome the updates in the competition format of The Miss Philippines. Some, however, question if these changes are necessary, given that some international pageants still hold swimsuit competitions and only accept unmarried participants.
In an interview with ABS-CBN, Pia Wurtzbach shared her opinion regarding the “no swimsuit competition” format of The Miss Philippines.
Pia won the Miss Universe pageant in 2015.
The beauty queen said that she understands why The Miss Philippines pageant is taking out the swimsuit competition.
“And I can understand why it’s not really necessary anymore. Perhaps there’s a better, healthier way to gauge the strength of a candidate physically without having her to wear a swimsuit. Maybe they will think of a better way,” she said.
Pia noted that other pageants, like the UK-based Miss World pageant, have removed the swimsuit competition from its roster of activities.
“When I was competing the reason why we had a swimsuit competition was to show the judges that you take care of yourself, you are fit, you are active… because you are supposed to be a role model,” she explained.
She also said: “I think it’s going into the right direction where we are kind of making it less about the body but more about the women talaga,” she added.” — Chuck Smith