The journey to the crown begins as the candidates to the 2016 Miss Universe beauty pageant have started arriving in the country to compete for the prestigious title at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City on January 30.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) will be providing one police escort for every four candidates for the duration of the stay of the international beauty queens.
But Senior Supt. Emmanuel Licup, commander of the Task Force Operation Miss Universe, said they are ready to provide one police escort for every candidate ratio if they see the need for it in the coming days.
He also downplayed threats to the country’s hosting of the Miss Universe pageant. “As far as direct threat, we don’t have direct threat concerning the staging of the Miss Universe pageant. But the monitoring will be continuous,” Licup told reporters in a press briefing at Camp Crame.
He explained that while they always take into consideration all the possible threats that could be carried out by groups that would try to show off as Miss Universe is an international event, he stressed that there is no imminent security concern so far.
Miss US Virgin Islands Carolyn Carter was the first candidate to arrive last Jan. 7. The next day, Jan. 8, it was Miss Guyana Soyini Fraser. Then came Miss Brazil Raissa Santana, and Miss Thailand Chalita Suansanee.
(Aaron Recuenco and Robert Requintina)