MANILA, Jan. 26 (PNA) – President Benigno Aquino III personally extended his congratulations to newly-crowned Universe Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach when the two met in Malacanang on Tuesday.
Dressed in terno, Wurtzbach paid a courtesy call in Malacanang along with her mother Cheryl Alonzo Tyndall, Binbining Pilipinas Charities Inc. Chairperson Stella Marquez-Araneta, and Miss Universe President Paula Shugart.
Inside the Palace’s Philippine Sala, the President greeted the country’s third Miss Universe titlist, shook their hands and then proceeded in a closed-door meeting.
After the meeting, Wurtzbach held a press conference where she told the media that the President congratulated her for winning the Miss Universe Pageant which was last won by Margie Moran in 1973.
”He congratulated me and we talked about Miss Universe for a little bit also with what he has been – what he has been busy with lately and how he has been doing, how I have been doing. I also congratulated him for a successful term,” Wurtzbach told the media.
President Aquino will end his six-term term as the country’s 15th President on June 30 this year.
Wurtzbach said it was an honor to be in the presence of the President “now that I am here as Miss Universe.”
When asked what is her ideal man, the 2015 Miss Universe said “somebody who’s smart with a good sense of humor.”
Wurtzbach also took the opportunity to push her advocacy by encouraging the youth to educate themselves about the danger of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).
”I think a lot of people think or most of the youth think that you can only acquire this disease if you are in sexual contact but you can also get this from drug use, from sharing needles, things like these,” she said.
After she expressed her interest to join politics through Senate President Franklin Drilon, Wurtzbach urged the Filipino people to elect the right candidates who will lead the country to the right direction in the coming May 9 national and local elections.
”My advice is for you to know better your candidate,” she said.
Wurtzbach said she is happy that the Philippines is now being recognized in the international scene with beauty pageants.
”It’s very good that we are finally getting the recognition that I think we deserve,”
She also confirmed that she will be the special correspondent of Inside Edition for the Super Bowl.
”I’m very excited. I think it’s a great compliment because they wouldn’t trust me with the microphone if they didn’t think that I could do well or speak,” Wurtzbach said.
”So I think that’s a pretty good sign. So it’s a great way of me connecting to more people, meeting new people and being recognized not just as Miss Universe, not just as Pia but also a Filipina,” she added.
Before Wurtzbach and Moran, actress Gloria Diaz won the Philippines’s first ever Miss Universe title in 1969.