R’Bonney Gabriel to host Miss Universe Philippines 2024 finals

R’Bonney Gabriel. Image: Instagram/@rbonneynola

R’Bonney Gabriel, the Filipino-American winner of the 71st Miss Universe pageant, will return to Manila for the 2024 Miss Universe Philippines pageant’s coronation show scheduled next month.

The sustainable-fashion designer and advocate from Texas also graced the national pageant’s fourth edition last year as then-reigning Miss Universe. This year, she will make another appearance as host of the final competition program for the fifth edition of the national search.

This is not the first time for a former Miss Universe winner to be invited to host the Miss Universe Philippines pageant. In last year’s competition, 2019 titleholder Zozibini Tunzi was a special host who shared the stage with Kapuso actors Xian Lim and Alden Richards.

For the national pageant’s third edition held in 2022, 2015 Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach from the Philippines joined forces with her successors Iris Mittenaere from France and Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters from South Africa to form a powerhouse trio of hosts. The contest also had then-reigning Miss Universe Harnaaz Sandhu as guest.

The 2024 Miss Universe Philippines pageant will choose the successor to reigning queen Michelle Marquez Dee, who finished in the Top 10 of the 72nd Miss Universe pageant held in El Salvador last year. She also topped the online popularity poll, and garnered the most votes for the national costume voting. The Filipino queen was also one of the three “gold finalists” in the “Voice for Change” initiative by Miss Universe crown provider Mouawad with CI Talks, and received the “Spirit of Carnival” award from Carnival Cruises.

Fifty-three ladies from all over the country and from overseas Filipino communities are competing to inherit the crown from Dee and become the Philippines’ representative in the 73rd Miss Universe pageant to be held in Mexico later this year.

The 2024 Miss Universe Philippines pageant will hold its coronation show at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City on May 22. The organizers have not yet announced who will share hosting chores with Gabriel, but Filipino drag superstar Marina Summers is slated to perform in the show.

The eventual winner will try to become the fifth Filipino woman to bring home the Miss Universe crown, after Gloria Diaz (1969), Margie Moran (1973), Pia Wurtzbach (2015) and Catriona Gray (2018).