A woman from a small town in the Philippines was crowned this year’s Miss Eco International on Saturday at the event finale held in Cairo, Egypt.
Cynthia Magpatoc Thomalla, 23, beat over 70 other beauties from around the world to emerge winner of the pageant that seeks to promote eco-tourism.
“I’m really happy. I hope I made my country proud,” the tourism and events management graduate said after the win.
Thomalla hails from Macrohon, a lesser known town of more than 26,000 people in the province of Southern Leyte.
She succeeded Amber Bernachi of Canada, who bagged the title in 2017. The first runner-up was Indonesia, followed by Peru (2nd runner-up), Vietnam (3rd runner-up) and Costa Rica (4th runner-up).
In the final question and answer part of the pageant, Thomalla highlighted the role of beauty title-holders in advancing the awareness of protecting the environment.
“I think that the most relevant thing that beauty queens can add to the world is by raising awareness of their own causes. For example, Miss Eco International is raising the advocacy in sustainable tourism and protecting the environment… That is the main point of doing beauty pageants — by raising our voices to help the earth,” she said, garnering applause from the audience.
Thomalla was born to a Filpina mother and a German father. She has been living in Macrohon since she was ten and describes herself as a funny person who loves cracking jokes to her friends.
The Miss Eco International pageant was founded three years ago by the LTCP-UN project.
