Despite the boos from some members of the audience, Miss Philippines Nichole Cordoves won first runner-up at the Miss Grand International 2016 pageant held in Las Vegas, Nevada last Tuesday night, October 25 (Wednesday, Oct. 26 in Manila).
Cordoves, 23, is a speechwriter who graduated with a degree on AB Economics at the Ateneo de Manila University. The Filipino-Chinese beauty queen is into fashion design and basic sewing. In 2014, Cordoves was crowned Miss Chinatown Philippines grand winner.
Indonesia’s Ariska Putri Pertiwi was crowned Miss Grand International, a contest that aims to stop the war and violence.
Other winners were Miss Thailand, 2nd runner-up; Miss Puerto Rico, 3rd runner-up; and Miss USA, 4th runner-up.
Norman Tinio, the world’s most-followed pageant blogger, expressed disappointment to final question of the beauty pageant to the Top 5 contestants.
“During the question and answer portion of the pageant, all the Top 5 contestants were asked the common question: ‘If you were given the choice, who would you like to stop the war with – Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump?”;
“It’s not a question of who would you vote for, so Miss Philippines and Miss USA chose Trump. But their answers were booed by the audience;”
“Instead of hearing their exact answers in the live streaming, you can’t hardly hear a word. It was drowned by their boos! And the three other ladies answered Clinton, to the cheers of the crowd;”
“But if you take the question in its real content, if you have the right reason to back up your answer, then fine.
But someone told me that there is a Nevada law saying that not even tourists going to Las Vegas are not allowed to state publicly their political opinions. Why ask it in an international pageant?” Tinio asked.
A total of 77 contestants competed in this year’s Miss Grand International pageant. Other candidates in the Top 20 were candidates from Bahamas, Korea, Macau, Peru, Ukraine, Australia, Cuba, Jamaica, Malaysia, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Tahiti, Venezuela, Vietnam and Wales.