Cory Quirino: Mutya ng Pilipinas holds Miss Intercontinental license
Mutya ng Pilipinas Pres. Cory Quirino (left) with Mutya ng Pilipinas-Luzon Shannon Robinson / ARMIN P. ADINA
MANILA, Philippines — Mutya ng Pilipinas Pres. Cory Quirino declared her national pageant has the national license for the Miss Intercontinental pageant for 2023. She made the statement after hushed talks circulated about the global tilt getting its Philippine representative this year from a different organization.
“We have the [Miss Intercontinental] license, and the commitment from the international organization that we have the license,” she told members of local media gathered at the CWC Interiors at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City on March 29 at a press conference called by the Mutya ng Pilipinas organization to release several announcements. The matter involving the Miss Intercontinental pageant was not one of those on the agenda, though.
“There may have been confusion among you because another pageant is claiming to also have [the license]. If only I could show you the license, but we are not allowed to. But we have it,” declared the wellness guru and host, who once served as the national director of the Miss World pageant for the Philippines. Under her watch, the country captured its first Miss World crown through Megan Young who won in 2013.
For the record, no other national pageant has released any official statement laying claim to the Miss Intercontinental pageant’s Philippine license for 2023. Also, the international organization is not making any announcement pertaining to national franchise holders on its social media pages, for the Philippines or any other country, unlike other global tilts.
In February, the Mutya ng Pilipinas organization announced that 10 years after it last sent a representative to the Miss Intercontinental pageant, it is once again deploying a queen to the global tilt, and has appointed its reigning titleholder Iona Gibbs for this year’s edition of the international competition. The last Mutya queen to participate in the international competition was 2013 top national winner Koreen Medina, who finished fourth in the global tilt’s 42nd edition held in Germany.
The Binibining Pilipinas Charities Inc. (BPCI) acquired the national franchise of the Miss Intercontinental pageant in 2014. Cebuana lass Kris Tiffany Janson captured the first ever Bb. Pilipinas Intercontinental crown and finished third in the international competition.
Since Janson’s strong showing, BPCI was able to produce two Miss Intercontinental winners. Karen Gallman gave the Philippines its first victory in the international pageant’s 47th edition held in the Philippines, while Cinderella Faye Obeñita scored the country’s second victory in the contest’s 49th installment held after a one-year pandemic pause.
Christi Lynn McGarry participated twice in the Miss Intercontinental pageant, first as Mutya ng Pilipinas’ representative, and next as a Bb. Pilipinas winner. She was crowned Mutya ng Pilipinas Asia Pacific in 2010, but the organization sent her to the Miss Intercontinental pageant instead of the crowned Mutya ng Pilipinas Intercontinental winner Carla Lizardo.
McGarry finished in the Top 15 of the 2010 Miss Intercontinental pageant, and also received the Miss Intercontinental-Asia and Oceania title. Five years later, she joined the Bb. Pilipinas pageant where she again won the right to represent the Philippines in the Miss Intercontinental pageant.
She was more fortunate in her second attempt at the Miss Intercontinental crown, and finished second to Russian beauty Valentina Rasulova. McGarry also received the Miss Intercontinental-Asia and Oceania title once again.
Bb. Pilipinas Gabrielle Basiano finished in the Top 20 of the most recent edition of the Miss Intercontinental pageant held in Egypt in October last year. EDV
