Shamcey Supsup, the national director of the Miss Universe Philippines, has finally given the much-needed clarification on the situation that happened before the Top 10 contestants announcement was controversially canceled. The finale of the 2023 edition of Miss Universe Philippines was concluded on 13th May 2023 with Michelle Marquez Dee of Makati Province winning the crown.
The whole situation started when the jury voted for the Top 10 qualifiers for the finale. Reportedly, the host Xian Lim announced that there was a technical difficulty and the judges had to manually tally the results. As a result, the Top 10 announcement was canceled and all 18 semifinalists were asked to compete for the final five places instead.
After the finale, everyone demanded an explanation from the organizers. Six days later, Supsup posted a statement on Facebook about the technical difficulties, saying that after the Top 10 were named, she noticed that the judges’ votes did not add up correctly.
The announcement was as follows:
“Following the announcement, which was based on the independently tabulated results provided by the accounting firm, those very same results were submitted to the board of MUPh for record-keeping purposes. However, as I carefully examined the figures, my attention was drawn to the highly improbable nature of the numbers. This gave rise to concerns that the integrity of the results may have been compromised.
In order to ensure absolute fairness and transparency, the board made the decision to initiate a manual counting of the judges' votes. This meticulous process was conducted with the utmost diligence and in the presence of the accounting firm. As a result, it became evident that there were discrepancies in the initial top 10 results.
Thus, a decision was made to allow all 18 candidates to compete in the evening gown portion of the competition. Our primary objective as an organization is to promote integrity, transparency, and accountability in all aspects of the pageant. We believe in providing equal opportunities for all candidates and to do what is right no matter the consequences.”