Yesterday, I had the opportunity to meet and have lunch with Mrs Universe Philippines 2022 Veronica Yu at the Lobby Lounge of Okada Manila. This advocacy-driven married woman will represent our country in the upcoming 45th edition of Mrs Universe which will be held in Sofia, Bulgaria from January 30 to February 5, 2023. And she is extremely excited with the competition, especially after the recently-concluded 71st Miss Universe which motivates her even more to do well.
A Past President (but still very active member) of the Rotary Club of Cubao-Quezon City, Veronica is a trained firefighter who does her share of charity activities for the Cancer Society of the Philippines, while regularly keeping her advocacy of fighting violence against women – something that she has been keeping a voice for these past number of years. Not your usual pageant enthusiast of a mom, she entered our world in order to give the platform an entirely different meaning in terms of substance and causes. She hopes to win the bigger crown in Bulgaria so she can further widen her causes for women around the world.
Do watch my exclusive interview with her below.
Tomorrow evening, Miss Earth 2022 is set to crown its new winner after two years of conducting its Finals virtually. This year, part of the preliminaries were done digitally. But for the most part of the edition, a return to physical pageantry was successfully organized by Carousel Productions here in Manila and around the Philippines.
The Miss Philippines Earth 2022 Top 20 were presented to members of the media, with the Preliminaries for Beauty of Figure/Form and Environmental Intelligence happening simultaneously. The event was held at The Fountain inside Okada Manila.
I spent a big chunk of my Sunday at the Glass Ballroom of Okada Manila where I was invited to be part of the panel that conducted the mock Q&A/interviews with the seven (7) Binibinis of Aces & Queens for Binibining Pilipinas 2022. The other invited panelists were Ashties Moks Gonzáles and Candy Drilon-Dalman, beauty queen Ashley Montenegro, Adam Genato, Christian Baking (of The Qrown PH), Political Strategist Alhamed Uy and Rappler journalist Jairo Bolledo.
It was a very fulfilling experience that allowed us to assess the ladies more in-depth. Each one of them showed different styles of answering questions and expressing their views. But in general, I would say that all seven conducted themselves very well. 
There are twenty-two (22) candidates vying for the Man of the World 2022 Pageant which is currently ongoing. By now, they are heading to Baguio City where the second half of the competition will be held, leading to the Finals on June 18 at the Baguio Convention Center. Preliminaries have already been conducted at Okada Manila, including the “bahag” segment which I opted not to feature here anymore (go figure). 
The 33 Official Candidates of Mister International Philippines 2022 were presented to members of the Press at the Grand Ballroom of Okada Manila.
normannorman.com 