Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte has rejected Steve Harvey as host of the Miss Universe beauty pageant in Manila in January, a senior official said.
“Steve Harvey is under contract for five years. Definitely, he’s again going to host the Miss Universe pageant [in 2017]. When I told the president about that, he was quite negative and said, ‘It is not possible.’” Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo told reporters on Thursday.
“The president [also] said, ‘I’m going to talk to the [organizers of] Miss Universe that he should not be the host [in Manila].’ That’s my problem [now],” confessed Teo, adding, “So that the president will not get mad, I’ll get a girl from the Philippines to co-host the event. Probably, one from the media,”
Duterte did not explain why he did not want Harvey to host Manila’s event,
Harvey famously mistakenly announced Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutierrez as the Miss Universe winner instead of Filipina contestant Pia Wurtzbach during the event’s coronation night in Las Vegas last December,
Harvey and Gutierrez have since patched things up. In a TV interview in January, Gutierrez recalled Harvey’s mistaken announcement as the “happiest four minutes that I ever had because I was able to make an entire country happy. But after that, I felt horrible. I was crying out loud. I felt humiliated. I was like, ‘I’m not Miss Universe? What am I going to do now? Everyone is going to make fun of me’”. She also asked for forgiveness for the Colombians who burned the effigies of Wurtzbach and Harvey.
Harvey also said on TV in January, “I needed her to forgive me to know that I was genuinely sorry because I felt horrible.”
Manila’s main event will be held at the Mall of Asia Arena on Manila’s Disodado Macapagal Avenue on January 30, 2017. Candidates will arrive on January 13 and will be in Davao, in southern Philippines; Cebu and Iloilo in central Philippines; and Vigan in northern Philippines for pre-pageant events.
“This will lessen traffic in Manila,” Teo explained, adding the private sector has sponsored the $11 million (Dh40 million) budget for the event. The Philippines last hosted the event in 1994.
13 Filipinas have won in five international beauty pageants, and Wurtzbach was the third Filipina to win the Miss Universe title, following Margarita Moran’s victory in 1973 and Gloria Diaz in 1969.
Five Filipinas became Miss International (Bea Rose Santiago in 2013; Precious Lara Quigiaman in 2005; Melanie Marguez in 1979; Aurora Pijuan in 1970; and Gemma Cruz Araneta in 1964) and three Filipinas won Miss Earth (Angela Cabrera Ong in 2015; Jamie Herrell in 2014, and Karla Paula Henry in 2008). Megan Young, a Filipina, was Miss World in 2013. Another Filipina was Miss Supranational in the same year.
The Philippines is now the seventh country after Australia, Brazil, Ecuador, India, France, and Venezuela to have won two titles in the same year; the third country after India and Venezuela to have won two of the big four pageants in one year, multiple times; and the first to have won in all five international beauty pageants.
