Bex for Belize! Miss Universe Stands Tall in Philippines

Just days to go and the excitement about the Miss Universe Pageant is at an all-time high. We’ve been showing you Rebecca Rath’s journey to the crown and the last few days have been filled with activities and new experiences. Miss Belize Universe’s auction item – a painting from local artist Pen Cayetano was one of the ten items chosen for auction out of the eighty six items presented by the delegates. Today, Rebecca also went in for her official interview with a panel of the judges. This is one of the preliminary parts of the competition that is considered crucial to the overall score of the top ladies in the pageant. This week also signaled an important event for the ladies – the official voting open to the public to select one of the queens to advance to the semi-final round – which we shared with you on Friday. But before we get into that reminder – you can get a chance to see Rath in the swimwear and evening gown segments – two of the preliminary portions of the competition. Rath and eighty five other contestants will showcase in front of a panel of judges live via Miss Universe website, Miss Universe official Facebook page and the Miss Universe App. This is a critical part of the competition, as the scores from these events along with the interview will help determine the top twelve of the competition. These two preliminary events will take place on Thursday morning from six a.m. through to eight a.m. local time. But while Rebecca has massive support here – her parents have since travelled to Manila, Philippines over the last few days to support her. Late this evening, we spoke with her father Tony Rath. He tells us that Rebecca is extremely grateful for the support and that it has been tough even for him to see his daughter as security is high to protect the eighty six queens from around the universe.

On the Phone: Tony Rath, Father of Rebecca Rath

“They have such tight security. I got in at four in the morning. I managed to pick up my press pass at eight and it took me all day to– I tried four different ways to get in to see Rebecca and every time there were walls of police men; there were SWAT Teams. There was military everywhere, so the girls are incredibly isolated and I couldn’t get with them a hundred yards of her. I managed to get a pass to the national gift auction which was a big gala affair and fashion show and Bex was front and center. She did incredibly well and was incredibly well received. She had one of the largest applauses of the night. We have managed to talk to Bex via phone and she is in wonderful spirits. She is feeling well prepared and she is feeling like she can compete with these girls and she is having a lot of fun but it is mostly work because she is up from four in the morning and don’t get to bed until eleven at night and their entire day is scripted by the Miss Universe people, so today the real hard stuff. Yesterday, actually, I managed to get in and talk to her for a few minutes during a rehearsal.  What I do have to say though, the few minutes that I had with Bex, she was nearly in tears thanking Belize. She could not believe the amount of support. She said she has never seen this amount of support where Belizeans have come together and help vote for her and she said that she received thousands of messages and tens of thousands of likes on her Facebook and she said she is just drawing so much strength from that and very proud and humbled to be able to represent Belize and the fact that so many Belizeans are behind her. So, regardless of what happens – win or lose – it is gonna be more than just Bex’s. It is gonna be a Belizean win.  I will say that a lot of Filipinos have recognized Rebecca and when we talk to them a lot of them think that Rebecca  has a chance and they will be pulling for Belize. So, if nothing else, I will tell you that Rebecca has put Belize on the map with the Filipinos, that is for sure.”

So, back to the voting. As we’ve told you – there are a number of ways that you can vote to help our Queen to advance to the semi-final round.  First, you can download the Vodi app that is compatible with i.O.S. and android and just click vote. The second way to vote is by visiting vote.missuniverse.com  – here you can vote ten times at once for once daily. The other way to vote is by downloading the Miss Universe App and hit vote on the side menu and if you are on twitter or you can sign up for a twitter account now – tweet using #missuniverse and #belize and also take advantage of retweeting.