MANILA (Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN): After five years since it last mounted a competition, the Miss Asia Pacific International pageant has finally crowned a new queen, and she is Janelis Leyba of the United States
Leyba bested 32 other aspirants from around the world at the culmination of the coronation show held at the Newport Performing Arts Theater in Pasay City on Monday night, Oct. 7.
The new queen inherited the crown from her predecessor Chaiyenne Huisman, the Spanish queen who won in the pageant’s previous edition held in the same theater in 2019.
The Miss Asia Pacific International pageant took a break from 2020 to 2022 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The pause extended to 2023 while the organization underwent changes. Seasoned beauty queen and lawyer Eva Patalinjug is now the president, taking over the post from Jacqueline Tan-Sainz who stays as CEO.
Completing the court for 2024 are first runner-up Karen Sofia Nuñez from Mexico, second runner-up Selena Ali from Belgium, third runner-up Blessa Figueroa from the Philippines, and fourth runner-up Jennifer Prokop from Germany.
Figueroa is a seasoned pageant contestant who has competed in the United States and the Philippines. Born in the Philippines, the 22-yer-old lass moved to the US when she was 11 years old.
She was crowned Miss Filipina International in 2022, and then later represented the Filipino community of Northern California in the first staging of The Miss Philippines Culture and Heritage Celebration in Manila in 2023.
The Miss Asia Pacific International pageant is the oldest global beauty contest based in the Philippines. It was founded in 1968 as the “Miss Asia Quest,” and later expanded to include countries in the Pacific region. It now covers all territories around the world.
The Philippines’ previous winners in the international pageant were Maria de Carmen Inez (1982), Gloria Dimayacyac (1983), Lorna Legaspi (1989), Michelle Aldana (1993) and Sharifa Areef Mohammad Omar Akeel (2018). - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
