Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach took to Twitter to defend her fellow Filipino actress Jessy Mendiola from bashers. The latter came under fire after she was perceived as being cocky over her new title as the sexiest woman in the Philippines.
"What I saw was a girl who was just really ecstatic to be given that recognition," Wurtbach tweeted. She added an emoji of a red dress.
Mendiola ranked number one in the list of 100 sexiest women by FHM Philippines and has expressed how proud she is that she beat Wurtzbach in the list. Miss Universe 2015 ranked number 16.
Voted as the second sexiest woman was Jennylyn Mercado followed by Nadine Lustre, Angel Locsin, Rhian Ramos and Marian Rivera who ranked third, fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively. At numbers seven, eight, nine and 10 are Arci Munoz, Solenn Heussaff, Kim Domingo and Rachel Anne Daquis, respectively.
Ellen Adarna, Sam Pinto, Glaiza De Castro, Jinri Park and Andrea Torres also ranked higher than Miss Universe 2016 in the list. Also in the list are “Blood Ransom” Anne Curtis at number 18, “Crazy Beautiful You” actress Kathryn Bernardo at number 19, “Ma’ Rosa” actress Andi Eigenmann at number 20, AlDub’s Maine Mendoza at number 21, former Japanese porn actress Maria Ozawa at number 27, “Dolce Amore” star Liza Soberano at number 30 and Miss World 2013 Megan Young at number 72.
On July 26, the FHM 100 Sexiest Victory Party was held inside the Valkyrie Night Club. Mendiola wore a red dress during the event.
In other news, it has been confirmed that Wurtzbach is crowning her successor in the Philippines. On July 18, she met with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte meets during a courtesy call at the Music Room of the Malacañang Palace.
"I would like to inform everybody that the Miss Universe pageant will be on January 30, 2017 in the Philippines," Rappler quoted Philippines' Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo as saying at a press conference in Makati City. "The government is not going to spend any single centavo. It will be the private sector who would shoulder the expenses."
In 1974, the pageant that was held in Manila for the first time with Miss Universe 1973 Margarita Moran of the Philippines crowning Amparo Muñoz of Spain. Miss Universe 1994 was also held in the Philippines with Miss Universe 1993 Dayanara Torres of Puerto Rico crowning Sushmita Sen of India.
Watch Mendiola’s controversial remarks involving Wurtzbach here: