MANILA, Philippines — What does Vietnam’s candidate for the upcoming Miss Universe 2019 pageant think of the reigning queen Catriona Gray?

“I think she’s very smart and very beautiful,” Hoang Thuy told INQUIRER.net in an interview after her guesting on INQPop Hangout on Tuesday. “And her performance [in the Miss Universe pageant is] so good. Her dress and her behavior with people is so good. I think she’s a role model.”

She also gushed about Gray’s performance as she acknowledged how well the Fil-Aussie beauty represented the Philippines in the global tilt.

“I watched her [on] Miss Universe and [saw] that she represent[ed] the Philippines so well that I heard and saw the video of her filming the whole Philippines and her charity,” Thuy said.

“I feel impressed about what she [is] doing for the community in [the] Philippines and I hope that she can bring her energy all over the world [just like] the same thing she did in [the] Philippines,” she added.

Thuy also shared how Gray had inspired positivity through her words and actions.

“When I look at her, I feel the positive energy around her when she talks and [in her] actions. I think [they] bring all the positive energy,” she said.

“Her story…that she didn’t give up when she didn’t win Miss World. So I think that [is] kind of a little bit same like my personality, because I would not give up because of something not right in the past we always believe in the bright future and I think she did a great job and Miss Universe is a big gift for her,” she added.

She said that she had also been following the reigning Miss Universe on her Instagram account.

Thuy, who is also a model, is visiting the Philippines for the first time to speak at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Youth Engagement Summit 2019 at the University of the Philippines Diliman. /atm