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The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Friday, October 18, said the Philippines’ bet to this year’s Miss Grand International pageant, Samantha Lo, was unable to join in pre-pageant activities in Venezuela.
This, it said, was because of “alleged issues with her passport.”
“Based on an ongoing investigation, the DFA confirms that Ms. Lo has no record in the DFA passport database and is continuing the process of ascertaining the facts of the case,” the department said.
The DFA’s statement came following reports that Lo was nowhere to be found in the competition’s pre-pageant activities in Caracas.
In her last Instagram post, Lo shared a photo of herself, all smiles while waving the Philippine flag. In the caption, she wrote, “The Samantha here is the product of all the love, support, and nurturing done by amazing people who constantly told her ‘Yes you can, and you will.’ See you soon Venezuela.”
But last Wednesday, Venezuelan jeweler George Wittels took to Instagram stories, to answer questions from netizens regarding Lo’s whereabouts.
Wittels said Lo was able to reach Paris, France but missed her flight to Venezuela.
He said the Filipina beauty queen had a “passport issue” but stressed that she was already “trying to get a new flight” to Venezuela.
A netizen also asked the jeweler if Lo would be disqualified if she failed to show up. Responding to this, Wittels said MGI President Nawat Itsaragrisil usually does not allow candidates to arrive late but clarified that Lo’s case was different because “visas were issued late and many countries don’t have Venezuelan embassies.”
“Even Nawat missed one plane to get here and had to make two extra flights to get here,” he added.
Miss Grand International (MGI) has earlier released a video of its welcome dinner and fashion show on its Facebook page. In the video, the MGI president said only 59 candidates have so far arrived in Venezuela.
“We still have one pending country, Philippines,” he said, adding that he expects Lo “very soon.”
“If she is watching us tonight, [I want her to] take care of herself and prepare herself very well [for the pageant],” he said.
It can be recalled that the 26-year-old Cebuana was crowned as Bb. Pilipinas Grand International last June 2019.