New Contest, New Format: Here’s Everything New You Can Expect in Miss Universe Philippines 2026

The Philippines is in pageant mode once more with the ongoing Miss Universe Philippines 2026 activities. In just a couple of weeks, Ahtisa Manalo will crown her successor on coronation night on May 2, who will then go on to represent the Philippines at Miss Universe 2026 in November. Over 50 delegates are competing to be named Miss Universe Philippines 2026, but this year’s competition won’t be exactly like past iterations, with a handful of new additions and changes to the way things work courtesy of the MUPH Organization. From a new format to greater public participation, here’s what you can expect in Miss Universe Philippines 2026.  

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Your Voice, Your Vote

Most of the changes you’ll see this year will come during the preliminary competition, which was pre-taped in March and will be released in rounds every week of April. Beyond the queens participating, the preliminaries will hold extra weight because they will help determine the queens who move forward as semifinalists, since ten queens will be eliminated after each competition. The preliminary rounds of Evening Gown, Preliminary Interview, and Swimsuit will be done in stages, with each stage open to public voting via the Maya app.

Once each stage is done, a selection committee composed of MUPH 2019 Gazini Ganados, MUPH National Director Ariella Arida, City of Dreams Manila Director Tes Parado Aranda, MUPH Executive Vice President Voltaire Tayag, Sparkle GMA Artist Center Vice President Joy Marcelo, and GMG Productions CEO and Owner Carlos Garcia Candal, and public voting will determine who moves forward to the next stage.

It started with the Evening Gown competition last April 5, and following the selection committee’s picks and a week of public voting, the competition was whittled down to the Top 40 (twenty selected via public voting and twenty selected via the selection committee), who then competed in the Preliminary Interview portion of the competition. Once public voting ends on April 18, the Top 30 queens will be revealed (fifteen queens from the fan vote, fifteen queens from the committee), who will go on to participate in the last preliminary competition, the Swimsuit competition on April 19.

Fans will then have another week to vote until April 25, which will lead into the reveal of the Top 20 queens, who will be named semifinalists. From these twenty queens, ten are selected from the public vote, while the other half are the committee’s picks. At every stage, delegates advance through a combination of public votes and the selection committee’s evaluation, leading to a final roster of queens who have impressed the judges and captured the audience’s attention.

But all is not lost for the queens who get eliminated, as there will also be wildcard selection and brand awards that can send candidates to the semifinals, with a total of 30 queens competing on coronation night on May 2.

On the coronation night, it begins with the swimsuit competition, which will determine the fifteen delegates to advance. Then comes the evening gown competition, which further trims the queens to the Top 7. Finally, it’s the famous question-and-answer round that determines who the winner and runner-ups are. And even during the coronation night, public voting will be involved, giving fans a say on who they want to win up to the end.

All in all, this revised system puts even greater power in the hands of fans and general public. Filipinos are known to have an intense passion for pageants, and channeling that energy into voting can have a tangible impact on the competition all the way to the Top 7. But whether or not a queen makes it to the end or gets eliminated during the preliminaries, all 50 delegates deserve their flowers because what they do is not easy. They’re spending a lot of time and resources to compete and put themselves out there representing their hometown, province, or community, and that’s an achievement in itself.

Featured Image and Photos: MISS UNIVERSE PHILIPPINES (via Instagram),  NICOLE BORROMEO (via Instagram), BEA MILLAN-WINDORSKI (via Instagram)