MUPH 2023 Cebu Province candidate reveals she's part of pageant's unannounced top 10

Miss Cebu Province in the recently concluded Miss Universe Philippine 2023 has revealed that she was part of the prestigious pageant's "unannounced top 10."

During the pageant's coronation night held May 13, host Xian Lim announced that the organization has decided to bring back the Top 18 candidates after calling out the pageant's Top 10. He said that due to "technical difficulties," all 18 candidates are instead given a chance to vie for a spot on the Top 5.

Three days later, on May 13, Cebu Province's bet Emmanuelle Vera took to Instagram to share the news that many of the pageant's viewers and her supporters are not aware of—that she was initially part of the pageant's Top 10.

Vera's post featured a clip of her swimsuit walk and a caption thanking all the people who supported her during her MUPH 2023 journey.

The actress-beauty queen wrote, "To everybody who made this journey possible, you are the ones who truly deserve crowns. People like me are merely the faces of the hardworking & dedicated teams who are the machinery that keep us going.

I want to start by thanking God, who both gives and takes away, and remains good nevertheless. He is sovereign above every circumstance, and I praise him in both my victories and defeats."

She went on to send her gratitude to project management company ProMedia Philippines as well as her trainers for being there "from beginning to end" to provide her with valuable advice and necessary tools to succeed.

Vera continued, "A top 10 finish, though it remains unannounced, is surely something to be grateful for, and a feat I could never have accomplished without you. I am proud to be a #promediaathlete"

Although her journey to the crown was cut short earlier than she was expecting, the 28-year-old Cebuana still gave a shout-out to the MUPH Organization for giving her and the other candidates "priceless opportunities, saw to it that we were well taken care of, and often forsook sleep to ensure things ran smoothly."

"It was hectic to say the least, but you stayed committed to the ladies, and to the vision until the very end," she added.

MUPH national director Shamcey Supsup, for her part, explained that the initial list of the top ten candidates was amended after the organization received the results initially provided by the pageant's accounting firm.

Supsup examined the figures and noticed the "highly improbable nature of the numbers," she wrote in a lengthy Facebook post on May 19.

"This gave rise to concerns that the integrity of the results may have been compromised. In order to ensure absolute fairness and transparency, the board made the decision to initiate a manual counting of the judges' votes," she said.

This then confirmed that "there were discrepancies in the initial Top 10 results," which prompted the organization to allow all 18 candidates to compete in the evening gown segment of the competition.