Colombians burn Pia effigy

MANILA, Philippines – Supporters of Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach are in an uproar after a video of her effigy being burned in Colombia went viral on the Internet yesterday.

Facebook user Noider Almanza Barraza – who hails from Barranquilla, Colombia – uploaded the minute-long video (http://on.fb.me/1O0TijP) showing the burning of the effigy, which supposedly happened during the New Year’s Eve celebrations.

It has over 1,400 shares as of yesterday afternoon, and has been featured in a number of popular blogs in the Philippines.

The effigy was wearing a blue gown similar to the one worn by Wurtzbach during the finals of the Miss Universe contest last month. It also had what appeared to be a photo of Wurtzbach wearing the Miss Universe crown and a sash with Philippines written on it.

The video had a caption written in Spanish and loosely translated as “Burning Ms. Philippines and Ms. Universe presenter last year 2015.”

It was unclear if an effigy of Miss Universe host Steve Harvey was also burned.

During the announcement of the winners at the pageant held in Las Vegas in Dec. 20, Harvey mistakenly announced Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutierrez as the winner of the competition.

He later went up the stage and apologized for the wrong announcement before naming Wurtzbach as the new Miss Universe.

Colombians did not take the mistake lightly, with Gutierrez saying she was humiliated.

Filipino netizens, meanwhile, expressed outrage over the burning of the effigy and urged Colombians to move on from the incident.

Others, however, pointed out that the act may have had a different meaning from the burning of effigies in the Philippines, which usually signifies protest.

A netizen said it could be part of a tradition where people try to forget and move forward from unfortunate incidents in the past year by burning memories, such as texts written on paper or, in this case, a doll patterned after Wurtzbach.