I'm claiming it as early as now: The Philippines will get its 4th Miss Universe crown this 2018!
Latinas, beware! You've been warned.
Divine intervention, experience, beauty, and intelligence all collaborated last Sunday for Miss Catriona Elisa Gray to be our 2018 Miss Universe Philippines! Everything just fell into place. She was the clear winner from the get-go and she delivered well - just like her Miss World Philippines competition back in 2016.
I'm still on "pageant bliss" so I'll do my recap in bullets:
- Catriona nailed most of her presentations last Sunday. Nobody is as consistent as she was. Some of the frontrunners even faltered in some of the segments. My favorite is Cat's Evening Gown presentation. The gown was made for international pageants (Made by Mak Tumang. Ang ganda!), the added touch of her 3 stars and a sun earrings was superb, and her parasela was all-drama and fierce. It was mostly game over after that.
- Cat got 5 out of the 11 Special Awards including BOTH the guaranteed-of-a-crown Best in Evening Gown and Best in Swimsuit. I was quite surprised with the latter and we all know that this is the one little area that Cat must focus on prior to Miss Universe 2018.
- Pageant history books will write Cat as the first ever Filipina who is a double winner of the two major crowns in the country. She earned the right to represent us in Miss World (2016) and Miss Universe (2018). What a transformation - from sweet to fierce!







