Maxine Medina, Miss Universe Philippines 2016 competes on stage in Yamamay swimwear featuring footwear by Chinese Laundry during the 65th MISS UNIVERSE® Preliminary Competition at the Mall of Asia Arena on Thursday, January 26, 2017. The contestants have (Photo : The Miss Universe Organization)
- Hopes are high for Miss Universe Philippines Maxine Medina to win the crown this year
- The Filipina beauty failed to achieve a back-to-back win for her home country after she did not make it in the Top 3.
- The PH's bet has an interpreter for the Question-and-Answer portion, but chose to answer the query in English
Even with the help of an interpreter, Philippines failed to achieve a back-to-back win in the most prestigious beauty pageant.
Expectations are high for Maxine Medina as the former Miss Universe is a Filipina and the pageant was held in her home country. The beauty queen has very large shoes to fill. Even before the pageant, Medina met backlash for her grammar and lack of substance in her past interviews making some people worried that she may have a difficult time in the Q&A portion.
Former beauty queens and netizens think that Medina should get the aid of an interpreter, which she did. In the competition, the interpreter translated the question to Maxine, but the Philippines' bet has decided to provide an answer in English.
The audience felt that the candidate's answer is lacking causing her early demise in the competition. However, USA, considered as one of the strong candidates, was dropped out of the Top 6.
Meanwhile, Filipina beauty queen and Miss Universe 2010 fourth runner up Venus Raj admitted that she requested for an interpreter when she was filling the form for the competition. However, the form must be submitted first to the Binibining Pilipinas Charities Inc. (BPCI) to get their approval before it could be handed over to the Miss Universe Organization.
However, BPCI denied Venus of her request saying, "They (BPCI) said, 'No, you don't need an interpreter, because the Philippines is actually known as [an] English-speaking [country], so hindi mo kailangan," she recounted.
She thought that if she has been allowed an interpreter, she could have phrased her answer better and say some thing that could have impressed the judges.
