How Miss Earth Philippines Yllana Aduana walks the talk on environment

Newly-crowned Miss Earth Philippines 2023 Yllana Marie Aduana started her reign visiting the coastal town of Sulat, Eastern Samar, to join a cleanup drive in celebration of the Month of the Ocean this May.

On the sidelines of the event, the 24-year-old beauty from Siniloan, Laguna shared in a one-on-one with The STAR that more activities like this can be expected from her together with Miss Earth Philippines and her own nonprofit Edukasyon for Every Juan.  

She said she intends to maximize “this platform to tell people about the environmental situation that we’re experiencing.”

“That’s what I want to do — to spread awareness because it all starts educating people, that you’re able to inspire them, to discover the power that they have to create something and to utilize that ‘superpower’ within them to help fight issues like climate change.”

After Sulat, Eastern Samar, they plan to do an ocean cleanup drive in Batangas.

Yllana shows her fit form while enjoying the sand, sea and sunset in the coastal town of Sulat, Eastern Samar. – Photo by Aldo Banaynal

On what can be expected from her reign, she shared: “I really know myself to be hardworking so I’m really much committed to everything that I do. What I’m going to do is, of course, to strengthen my advocacy of (environmental) education. I will still continue to do the colloquiums about the 17 sustainable development goals, at the same time, their interconnectedness to nature.

“More than that, I’m planning more environmental projects and initiatives such as the ocean cleanup drives, waste cleanup drives, tree-planting. And now, I feel more strengthened because I’m not doing it alone, I’m doing it with my Elemental Queens. I can also work with my organization and tap other eco-sisters that I have in my batch. We can do all these environmental things together.”

Yllana isn’t just spouting big words about the environment, she’s been walking the talk. Her pageant journey purposely began and will end with Miss Earth Philippines because, as she said, her heart is really with the pageant’s environmental objectives and causes.

“I’m really passionate about the environment. I really take time to study it and read about it so I can also inform others and inject my knowledge (whenever I have the opportunity),” said.

Yllana is a medical laboratory scientist and a certified drug analyst. She also works as a model and she has been running the non-profit organization Edukasyon for Every Juan. She studied at Centro Escolar University, where she was a consistent dean’s lister and a scholar.

“We’re not affluent as a family, but my parents would always tell me that education is the greatest gift that they can give me. So I really took advantage of it,” she said.

“We were really able to rise above many, many challenges because of that.”  

Yllana didn’t dream of becoming a beauty queen but then the pandemic happened.

“It wasn’t actually my dream. But the pandemic happened and I felt like I was getting stuck at an impasse and I wasn’t really progressing as a person. Parang I told myself, there’s really something more than I can do.

“So, I went back to my core — I have been practicing the zero-waste and sustainable lifestyle ever since I was in high school — so I was scrolling through Facebook one day and I saw the Miss Earth Philippines 2021 poster looking for their queens. Sabi ko, I feel like it’s my sign and I’m going to join this one,” said the second of three kids and the first title-holder in her family.

Though a pageant favorite, she failed in her first bid at the Miss Earth Philippines crown. Same thing happened in her second pageant, Binibining Pilipinas 2022, which landed her in the Top 12.

Last month, she finally won in her third pageant try and second attempt at the Miss Earth Philippines crown.  

Asked about the most challenging part throughout her entire pageant experience, Yllana said, “I feel like every beauty queen would agree to this one that the greatest challenge is to really put ourselves out there, the best and perfect version of ourselves. Pero kasi ako, what I do is I always go back to my core values, I don’t mind what other people are thinking, I just go about my way, showing them who I really am.

“With my final Q&A, if I may share, some people were telling me that I use high-falutin words all the time… it’s also one of the challenges (I had). Sabi ko, this is really me, something that’s really innate to me, so I asked my bosses do I have to ‘regulate’ it, but they said, that’s you, you don’t have to pretend and lower down whatever you have so that you can please people. Kasi when you do Q&A, you have to be authentic and that’s my authentic self.”

If she’s not busy with Miss Earth Philippines, Yllana said, “I just stay at home and I read more. Sometimes, I watch movies, sometimes I watch Netflix to relax and unwind. I don’t really go out that much. Sometimes, I invite friends over. I’m a home person. I try as much as I can to regain my energy, when I don’t perform my responsibilities. So that when I go about my duties, I’ll be 100-percent energized ulit,” she shared. 

“My favorite book now is You Can Save The Earth (by Sean K. Smith). It’s about the environment pa rin. I really love learning about it because I feel like you need to equip yourself with the right tools, for example, the things that you can read, and through exposure to the environment and the community, you will really become more passionate about it.”

She’s also open to showbiz and not shy to admit that her childhood dream is to become an artista.

There have been showbiz offers, but nothing is definite yet. But she has been allowed by Carousel Productions, founder and organizer of Miss Earth and Miss Earth Philippines, to accept projects, if ever, within the duration of her reign. And if given the chance in the future, she wishes to co-host a show that’s similar to Dingdong Dantes’ Amazing Earth because again, it’s in line with her passion.

She also said she’d like to “do rom-coms and be paired up (laughs).”

For the meantime, Yllana is preparing for the Miss Earth international competition in Vietnam in December. Immediately after she took home the title last April, she called in her team to help her “strategize” and “come up with a gameplan” alongside Miss Earth Philippines.

“We’re kind of pressured but in a good way. It’s overwhelming, yes, but in a very positive way because we really gave it our all during the Miss Philippines Earth 2023. So we were talking about how we are going to supersede this one, how we are going to bring more to the table since we already did our best.

“So we came up with an amazing game plan. As much as I’d like to talk to you more about it, I have to keep a tight lip on it. So when we compete in Vietnam, people will be surprised.”

“Miss Earth Philippines 2023 is going to be my last Philippine pageant,” Yllana also declared even though her age would still make her qualified for other pageants.

“I’m really going to do my best to hopefully bring back the fifth Miss Earth crown for the Philippines.”