Miss Camiguin explains how she was able to see who won Miss Universe Philippines 2024 from afar
Miss Camiguin explained her trending "Marites" moment during Miss Universe Philippines 2024, which got social media users wondering how she was able to see what was in the card despite being at a great distance from it.
In an interview with PhilSTAR L!fe on Saturday, May 25, Rethiana Rosa of Camiguin said it didn't take much effort to figure out the winner even though she was far from host Alden Richards, who was holding the card at the time. "'Cainta' is a shorter word than 'Bulacan' and the letters C and B are quite easy to distinguish from afar," she said.
According to the MUPh bet, she and her fellow candidates were betting on who was going to bag the highly coveted title between Cainta's Stacey Gabriel and Bulacan's Chelsea Manalo. "I told them, 'Wait, let me try to see,'" she recalled with a laugh. "I just knew that time na it's Alden who's gonna announce the winner so I tried to sneak a peek on his card."
"When I told them it's Bulacan, they covered my mouth so people wouldn't be able to see and read my lips," she continued.
Rethiana said she didn't expect they would still be visible in the camera frame during the viral moment. "We were at the edge of the stage," she explained. "We were all laughing because we already knew who the winner was before it was even announced since I told the others as well."
The beauty queen noted that they meant no harm after all and that they were all happy with how everything turned out. "We mean no harm, honestly. We really love Chelsea and all of my other sisters are genuinely happy for the winners," she told L!fe.
"On my end as well, I was just really happy Chelsea won because she was really nice to me and even checked up on me when I was sick a week before the coronation," she said, "that's why I was so happy when I saw the results."
Chelsea won the highly coveted crown at the MUPh 2024 pageant, which took place on May 22 at the Mall of Asia Arena. She was followed by Stacey (1st runner-up), Quezon Province's Ahtisa Manalo (2nd runner-up), Baguio's Tarah Valencia (3rd runner-up), and Taguig's Christi McGarry (4th runner-up).
Aside from the Top 5 candidates, four other queens were crowned after the MUPh ceremonies: Ahtisa was named Miss Cosmo Philippines and Tarah won Miss Supranational Philippines.
Alexie Brooks of Iloilo was announced as the Miss Eco International Philippines titleholder, while the Miss Charm Philippines crown was given to Cyrille Payumo of Pampanga. They both finished in the Top 10 of the local pageant.