Beauties of the universe: Pia joins Gloria, Margie

MANILA, Philippines - Former Miss Universe winners Gloria Diaz and Margie Moran welcomed Pia Wurtzbach to the rarefied world of being the most beautiful woman in the universe.

“Welcome to the privileged and lucky circle,” Diaz, who became the first Filipino Miss Universe in 1969, said to Wurtzbach yesterday.

“I’m so happy for her as this is a dream for her,” said Moran, who took the crown in 1973. “After 42 years, I finally have a successor.”

Moran told The STAR that while the pageant had an “awkward” finale, “Pia deserved the title… I had a very strong feeling she would make it because she exuded the aura of a winner. She answered well and her advocacy on HIV awareness was clear.”

“Though Steve Harvey’s embarrassing and unfortunate mistake robbed Pia of the glory of basking in the moment of being awarded the title, the Filipinos will give her that moment of glory. Pia will even be more famous this coming year because the world media will be more interested to interview her because of this incident. She is in a position to present herself well. Congratulations Pia, you make us proud,” she added.

It indeed has been a long wait for beauty contest-crazy Filipinos. The country’s appetite for the crown was whetted over the past five years, with our beauty queens finishing in the top five from 2010 to 2013, and landing in the top 10 last year.

The closest we came was in 2012, when Janine Tugonon was first runner-up. Ariella Arida (2013) and Shammy Supsup (2011) were third runner-up, while Venus Raj was fourth runner-up in 2010. MJ Lastimosa made the semi-finals (top 10) last year.