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| Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach waves Philippine flag during her homecoming parade in January.Philstar.com / Efigenio Toledo IV, file |
DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Philippines News Agency) —The Philippines' hosting of the next prestigious Miss Universe pageant on Jan. 30, 2017 will be aired live on all TV networks at around 8 a.m. to 9 a.m., a tourism official said.
Department of Tourism (DOT) Undersecretary for Media Affairs Kat De Castro made this confirmation in a press conference in Davao City on Saturday urging those interested in seeing the pageant in the Mall of Asia (MOA) Arena to “come early.”
De Castro said that an inter-agency task force composed of the DOT, the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Department of Finance (DOF) was also formed to make sure the staging of the pageant runs smoothly.
She noted that the DOTr and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) will make sure that traffic is kept at the minimum during the pageant.
“One of the orders of President (Rodrigo) Duterte is when we do the final show, people will not experience traffic because it’s happening on a Monday morning,” De Castro said.
The pageant’s ancillary events will, meanwhile, be held in other parts of the country including Davao, Bicol, Cebu and Vigan. There will also be photoshoots done in Baguio, Palawan, Siargao, Tacloban and Iloilo.
Last November 16, major partners signed an agreement to secure the hosting of the pageant in the Philippines.
DOT earlier said that the private sector would shoulder production costs of the pageant, estimated at $11-15 million.
The official host of the prestigious pageant will be the DOT and the group of former Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis Chavit Singson, LCS Holdings, while its partners include Okada Manila, Solar Entertainment Inc. and SM Lifestyle Entertainment Inc.
The Philippines already hosted the Miss Universe pageant twice, in 1974 and 1994.
Source: Philstar.com, 11/20/2016