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When Miss Earth 2016 Katherine Espin from Ecuador and then Miss Earth-Philippines Karen Ibasco first met, the latter asked for an advice when it comes to joining an international beauty pageant.

“I told her that ‘you will (be competing) with a lot of beautiful women here’ and I said ‘you’re a very smart girl, very intelligent, this is your weapon, use it wisely’ and she did!” the 24-year-old beauty queen recalled during an exclusive interview with INQUIRER.net on Sunday.

Espin crowned Ibasco as her successor Saturday night after the Filipina bested 85 other candidates during the grand coronation night of the Miss Earth beauty pageant. 

READ: Philippines’ Karen Ibasco crowned Miss Earth 2017 

Ibasco, a medical physicist from the University of Santo Tomas who graduated cum laude, is the fourth woman from the Philippines to bag the Miss Earth crown in the pageant’s 17-year history.

“It was her night, she really performed confidently, she knows who she is, she knows what she has accomplished in her life… her studies (educational background) and everything were reflected in her answer,” Espin said of Ibasco.

She added that she admires the fact that Ibasco won because she really did a good performance in the question and answer portion. 

“I wanna congratulate her, I’m sure she worked hard for it.” Don Lejano