Almost a Billion Pesos: The Cost of Hosting Miss Universe in Manila!?!?

Posted by: Jesson Capuchino | Posted on: April 20, 2016

Call me a study of contrasts but if the cost of hosting the Miss Universe pageant in Manila would be almost a billion pesos, THEN I WOULD NOT WANT THE PHILIPPINES TO HOST MISS UNIVERSE 2016. If we are basing the hosting budget on the amount spent by Sao Paulo, then we really have to have deep pockets to get the money from.

In a report by the Miami Herald, $2.5 million was paid by the city of Doral for the 63rd Miss Universe pageant. This figure does not reflect the full amount of what the city shelled out for the event. This pales into comparison the $16 million that Moscow paid for in 2013 and $17 million that Sao Paulo spent in 2011. If we calculate the amount spent in Sao Paulo in today’s currency rate, that would amount to Php 784 million!

According to a report for Tempo by Robert R. Requintina, more than $12 million would be needed to be raised and spent for the event. The article said:

The Philippines would need more than $12 million (around P540 million) to stage the 2016 Miss Universe pageant, an industry source said yesterday.
“It was five years ago when the computation was placed at $12 million. Perhaps the figures have changed now. It could even go higher than 500 million,” the source said.
The $12-million figure was based on the 2011 computed budget of Panama for the staging of the Miss Universe pageant in 2013.

I admire reigning Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach in her dedication for the pageant to be held here in Manila, but I agree with Miss Universe 1969 Gloria Diaz when she said that there are more pressing issues in the Philippines that need to be addressed. Having it done during the election period also escalates the possibility of having less support from the government, which is expected to shoulder the biggest chunk of the budget. This means using taxpayer money for the heavily taxed middle class/ working class.

Unaccounted reports had it that the Philippines spent twice than the original amount to host the Miss Universe pageant back in 1994. According to a letter written (Manila Standard, January 4 1994) by Daniel G Corpuz, Director-General of the MU1994 Hosting Committee, the ceiling budget was at Php 150 million pesos. But journalist Emil Jurado estimated that the cost was twice than that. It was rumored that the Philippine government had to shoulder the shortfall of the cost as the budget from the private sector and sponsors did not fully materialize. Later that year, it was reported that the income generated from the venture was expected to be approximately Php 108 million but the Department of Tourism only collected P10 million (Manila Standard, October 6, 1994).

Regarding this issue, my love for country triumphs over my love for pageants. There are more important matters that the country has to solve: the worsening traffic in Metro Manila, modernization of the PNP and Armed Forces, the rising cases of HIV-AIDS cases in the country, the multiplying costs of tertiary education and the lowering standards of public education, the killings and massacres like those of the Mamasapano case, inequality of distribution of infrastructure projects in the countryside, etc… more than half a billion pesos is too much money wasted on a frivolity we cannot yet afford. I believe that money would be best spent on infrastructures and social services. The hosting of the Miss Universe pageant in Manila or even in Cebu seems shallow in comparison to these issues and national concerns.

After all, if Venezuela has managed to win crowns one after another without hosting any of the four biggest pageants in the world, I don’t see why can’t we.

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