Though Miss Philippines Samantha Bernardo failed to bag the first Miss Grand International crown for the country, netizens are still proud of her performance.
Bernardo finished second to Abena Appiah of the United States of America after a tie-breaker question along with Guatemala Ivana Batchelor when their scores were even.
The final question: "There's only one dose of COVID-19 vaccine left. And you have to choose who to give it to either between a 15-year-old or a senior citizen of 70 years old. Who would you choose to give it to and why?"
Bernardo answered: "My heart goes to senior citizen because my mom is turning senior citizen, and I experienced the loss of my dad four years ago and I cannot afford to lose my mom. My heart goes to them because they are the most vulnerable during this time. A 15-year-old has the stamina to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and with proper exercise and healthy living, they can live with it. I know as well that every citizen here will choose, and never afford to lose their parents. And so, I will choose senior citizen."
Prior, the top 5 candidates, along with Indonesia's Aurra Kharisma (3rd runner-up) and Brazil's Lala Guedes (4th runner-up) were asked: "With the current pandemic that the world is going through the top five were asked to picked situation between shutting down the country for the safety of the people knowing that the country economic will collapsed or open the country to keep economic running and taking the risk of COVID-19 consequence."
Bernardo answered: "I will always choose the people because without its people a country will never be a country, we will never be a Philippines without Filipinos, you will never be Thailand, without Thai. So it is must that we should take care of our people first. I stand here for love and peace and unity because there will always be the solution no matter what our problems in this life. And I think if we come together as people, as one united world, then we can have a better place to live in. I hope after this pandemic COVID-19 happened, we can be a better citizen."
The beauty queen from Palawan is the first Filipino to compete in a live international pageant during the pandemic.
Samantha was personally handpicked by the Binibining Pilipinas organization to represent the Philippines in the international competition.
So far, no Filipino has won the Miss Grand International pageant since its inception in 2013.