The national beauty contest for environmental awareness that has been known as “Miss Philippines-Earth” for 17 editions has been rebranded and will now be called “Miss Earth Philippines.”
“I guess it sticks more in the minds of the people. Because being known as ‘Miss Philippines-Earth,’ it’s harder to remember,” Karen Ibasco, last year’s winner, told the Inquirer on the sidelines of the 2018 press presentation of the beauties at the Diamond Hotel in Manila on Thursday morning.
Ibasco eventually won for the Philippines its fourth Miss Earth crown.
To illustrate the confusion with the pageant’s former name, the medical physicist from Manila said a lot of people had been calling her and the pageant “Miss Earth Philippines.”
Lorraine Schuck, executive vice president of organizer Carousel Productions, said that the name change was arrived at on account of other “Miss Philippines” pageant staged by a different team.
Another entity
Schuck, a former beauty queen herself, said she did not understand why the Intellectual Property Office had awarded the name to another entity, even when Miss Philippines-Earth had been staging its pageant for the past 17 years.
“I’m talking to my lawyers, we’ll try to get the title back. We’re taking action to have the rights taken from the other organizer,” she said.
But she said that even before the controversy, her team had been mulling over the idea of changing the national pageant’s name to further highlight the global “Miss Earth” tilt, which her team also organizes.
“The Miss Earth pageant is more popular, and it’s known around the planet,” she said.
On Thursday, 42 delegates from all over the country and overseas Filipino communities were presented to the media.
The winner will represent the country in the global Miss Earth pageant in October or November in the Philippines.
The 2018 Miss Earth Philippines coronation ceremonies will be staged at Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City on May 19.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer is a media partner of the national competition.