Miss Earth Philippines 2019 is Janelle Tee of Pasig

Janelle became the successor of Miss Philippines Earth 2018 Celeste Cortesi from the Filipino community in Italy. (Photo: Miss Philippines Earth/Facebook)

The Filipino-Chinese won the crowd over when she was asked, “Which do you think is a better strategy to encourage people to be environmentally conscious – give incentives for good environmental practice or penalize bad eco-habits? Why?” along with the four other finalists. She answered, “I would choose to give incentives, because as a productive country, we know that we have a lot of communities that truly need help in terms of livelihood projects, which is what I’ve been doing with ABS-CBN Foundation,” explaining, “That’s why I want to choose incentives because we have to teach them how to fish, rather than just give them fish for the day. If you teach them how to fish, then it will be there for a living. It will be there sustainably in them. Thank you.”

Janelle became the successor of Miss Philippines Earth 2018 Celeste Cortesi from the Filipino community in Italy. Unfortunately, Celeste was not present to turn her crown over for the coronation due to a bad allergy, telling pageant fans the night before, “Following the advice of my doctor, I will not be able to attend the coronation of Miss Philippines Earth. I wish I could be there to turn over my crown and show my support to all the candidates. All I want to say is thank you for all the love you guys gave me during my journey.” Zahra Saldua, Miss Earth-Air Philippines 2018, fulfilled Celeste’s duties instead.

Among the other winners were Misamis Oriental representative Ana Monica Tan as Miss Philippines Air, Marikina City representative Alexandra Dayrit as Miss Philippines Fire, Tacloban City representative Chelsea Fernandez as Miss Philippines Water, and Iloilo representative Karen Nicole Piccio as Miss Philippines Eco-Tourism.

The newly crowned queen will be representing the country in the upcoming Miss Earth pageant at the end of the year.