No Miss Universe pageants for Philippines This Year

The Philippines will not host this year's instalment of the Miss Universe pageant, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said Friday.

"Hindi muna (Not) this year," Romulo-Puyat told DZMM.

She cited budget constraints as a reason not to host the pageant, saying the tourism department still needs to address other concerns.

"We'll focus Muna on other things. Anyway, kaka-Miss Universe lang naman so baka saka na lang," she said.

"Marami muna tayo kailangan ayusin,"



she added.

(We recently hosted Miss Universe so maybe some other time. We still need to fix a lot of things.)

Manila last hosted the international beauty pageant in January 2017 when French beauty queen Iris Mittenaere was crowned as the successor of Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach.

The Miss Universe pageants were also held in the Philippines in 1974 and 1994.

Catriona Gray, a former Miss World top 5 finisher, will represent the Philippines in the 67th Miss Universe.