Miss Earth 2022 Mina Sue Choi ‘so happy’ for pageant’s return to PH

Miss Earth 2022 Mina Sue Choi/ARMIN P. ADINA

Mina Sue Choi posted Korea’s first Miss Earth victory in Manila in 2022, and she is glad to be back in the country to witness the international pageant receiving the Filipino treatment anew as it returns to the Philippines.

“I’m so happy that it is held in the Philippines again, because all the ‘elemental queens,’ they were able to have a lot of good experiences, and bond together,” she told INQUIRER.net just before the 2024 Miss Earth coronation show started at the Cove Manila club of Okada Manila in Parañaque City on Saturday night, Nov. 9

When she relinquished her crown to her successor in Vietnam, which hosted the global tilt’s 23rd edition in Ho Chi Minh City last year, Choi did not have her fellow 2022 titleholders with her. Aside from the top prize, the pageant awards “elemental titles” to three more winners–Miss Earth-Air, Miss Earth-Water, and Miss Earth-Fire.

“Miss Earth is also about the sisterhood. Just happy to witness that,” said Choi, who confessed to waxing emotional upon her full-circle moment for her third straight stint in the international pageant.

“I’m so happy to be back. I’m looking back at a lot of memories from two years ago. When I first walked in here during rehearsals, I was tearing up so much, remembering all my 2022 delegates. I wouldn’t be here without them. There was a lot of missing and reminiscing,” she said.

Choi also shared how the crown transformed her life. “It has changed me so much in a way that I’ve grown so much as a person. I think the beauty of being in a pageant is you get to take care of yourself physically, but also mentally. So I think I’ve grown so much from the person I was before compared to now,” she said.

Choi had a cameo appearance in the Korean drama “DNA Lover,” marking her debut in the entertainment industry as an actress.

When asked what advice she would give to the pageant’s eventual winner, she said, “authenticity, all the time, always. Be kind, but also be true to yourself.”

The 2024 Miss Earth crown went to Jessica Lane, the first winner from Australia, who inherited the title from 2023 queen Drita Ziri from Albania.