The Miss Pancontinental pageant started on November 19 and was supposed to run until the end of the month, with the grand finale slated to be held on 29' November 2015. With finale just few days far, Miss New Zealand, Nicole Harding has decided to quit from the pageant due to qualms for her safety. Nicole revealed that the New Zealand diplomats have told her to go home. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade is being approached for comment.
The devastated, Kiwi beauty queen has ditched her first international pageant after organizers ran "a Mickey Mouse outfit" and put contestants in danger. She expressed her concern on Facebook, saying: "Unfortunately I am having to leave the Miss Pancontinental pageant early. Due to my safety and security the New Zealand Embassy has decided that it is best if I fly back to New Zealand." The 22 years old beauty queen says she is "saddened" as she'd worked hard to make it to the pageant in the Philippines."...But with the lack of organization, climate and security it is unsafe for me to be here any longer" she added. She also affirmed: "Thank you to everyone that has been there to support me through this experience and I am looking forward to touching down in New Zealand and seeing all of my friends and family."
Christchurch's Nicole Harding is one of several contestants to pull out of the Philippines pageant because of disorganization and safety concerns, counting a night in a hotel room she equated to a prison cell, with armed guards and dogs outside. The lady is on her way home from Manila. "No one had any idea this was going to happen, if anyone knew half the delegates wouldn't have been sent there." Harding, who emerged in a promotional video for the pageant, said.
The contestants were promised their costs, including five-star hotels, would be covered by the pageant. The groups were to fly to Cagayan de Oro, in the country's Mindanao province, for the heats. The New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade have extreme and high risk alerts for the island. According to reports, human trafficking has been a crisis in the region.
A nursing student, at present, Harding also revealed that during the arrivals some of the contestants had trouble checking in at the airport. Once they arrived in Cagayan De Oro they were taken to a different hotel after the organization faced booking problems. Nicole gruffly expressed: "They took us to this hotel, which, in New Zealand, I would liken to a prison cell. There were guys out the front with machine guns and dogs." She also stated that there were three people to a room with only one double bed. The bed was on concrete floor with slim mattress. The room was "crawling with bugs".
Thereafter, the next day they were transferred to a different hotel, which was not expecting them. The contestants whereby found out their luggage, two pageant organizers and the photographer had been detained at the previous hotel because it had not been paid for. She added: "We met with the Cagayan governor and he said it was not safe to be here, this place is more unsafe than Afghanistan. He told us, where we were, they kidnap people and use them as sex slaves, it's the number one place for human trafficking and we needed to get these girls out of here. I think what they tried to do was run a pageant on a budget and make a profit. Yet I was told this was non-profit and the proceeds would go to charity."
Harding said a Filipino government official recommended the girls to leave the country, while her mother had been in touch with the New Zealand Embassy. Miss USA, Ashley Clark, had been counseled to leave by the US Embassy. They had flown back to Manila and would take the next available flights home. They were sentient of at least three other contestants who had pulled out of the pageant due to security concerns and poor organization. Harding herself had spent up to $7,000 on the trip. Some of the cost was covered by her sponsor. She expressed: "I'm gutted because I've spent so much time, money and effort. All the contestants did. It's been one of my dreams to do this and now it's been obliterated."
New Zealand National director of pageants, Mila Manuel alleged she sent Harding to the pageant because she knew the organizers. She was thwarted they had let her down. Manuel was helping arrange flights to get Harding home. She understood the pageant would still go ahead. Mila expressed: "They have let me down; I have never seen a pageant like this before."
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokeswoman said the New Zealand embassy in the Philippines did not provide the recommend to leave the area. It’s safe travel advisory for central and western Mindanao is set at tremendous risk, and high risk for the rest of Mindanao. There is some risk to security elsewhere in the Philippines, including in Manila, due to the threat of terrorism, risk of kidnapping and violent crime and it advises "caution".