Endicio lost her Miss Tourism International ticket to a franchise change. In Dubai on September 26, she won the crown Mutya ng Pilipinas found her instead.
Andrea Endicio had held the Miss Polo Universe Philippines title for about eight weeks when she was crowned Miss Polo Universe 2026 at the Mövenpick Grand Al Bustan in Dubai on the night of September 26, early September 27 in Manila. The licensed pharmacist from Candelaria, Quezon, is the first Filipina to win the pageant and the first to compete in it.
She beat eight other candidates, including a delegate representing the Filipino community in the United Arab Emirates, and took most of the night’s special awards: Best in National Costume, Best in Production Number, Best in Evening Gown, Miss Photogenic, Face of Luxurist, and the Brilliant Mind Institute Choice award. She succeeds Mexico’s Esther Camacho Cardenas, who won the pageant’s first edition in Dubai in 2025.
A Crown That Replaced Another One
Endicio took the long road to an international stage. She reached the Top 10 at Miss World Philippines 2024 and the Top 14 at Binibining Pilipinas 2025 before Mutya ng Pilipinas (MNP), the national pageant founded in 1968 and now in its 58th year, two years out from its 60th anniversary, crowned her its Tourism International titleholder in November 2025. That title came with a slot at Miss Tourism International, a Malaysia-based pageant that had drawn its Filipino delegates from MNP since 1994.
The slot vanished earlier this year, when ALV Pageant Circle, the pageant company run by talent manager Arnold Vegafria, acquired the Philippine franchise for Miss Tourism International. The country will now host that pageant for the first time in December, with ALV’s own delegate. Endicio’s title was pulled when the franchise changed hands, and her trip abroad went with it.
MNP president Cory Quirino said the organization spent the following months looking for a “suitable” pageant for her. It found one in August, signing a partnership with the newly formed Miss Polo Universe Philippines Organization and appointing Endicio as its first delegate. At her send-off in Makati, Endicio called the assignment “a dream come true for me.”
What Miss Polo Universe Is
Miss Polo Universe is a Dubai-based international pageant founded by Zainab Al Taher, now in its second edition. It has no swimsuit round. The organization builds the competition around women’s empowerment, inclusion, cultural diplomacy, and advocacy work, which puts more weight on interviews and public speaking than most international pageants do.
The format suited Endicio’s résumé. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Santo Tomas and worked as a courtside reporter before pageants took over her calendar. Her platform in Dubai was cybercrime awareness and safer online spaces for children, an advocacy she took up after being caught in a cybercrime incident involving a bomb threat.
Mutya’s Busy Year Abroad
Endicio’s win gives MNP two international crowns and a runner-up finish in 2026, all from its class of 2025, and two of those results came from queens whose national titles carried no international assignment when they won them. Lyndzy Blyss Maranan, crowned Mutya ng Pilipinas Luzon 2025, was appointed to Miss Global Universe and won it in July. Eunice Deza, Mutya ng Pilipinas Visayas 2025, finished second runner-up at Top Model of the World in Egypt. The full list of where MNP’s 2025 batch competed this year makes for an unusually crowded map for a single class.
The next batch is close behind. Applications for Mutya ng Pilipinas 2026 close September 28, and coronation night is October 14 at the Playtime FilOil Center in San Juan, where this year’s titleholders inherit a pipeline that looks different from the one Endicio started with.
What We Don’t Know Yet
The Miss Polo Universe organization hasn’t published what Endicio’s reign involves: where she’ll be based, how much of her year runs through Dubai, or when she returns to Manila. MNP typically holds a homecoming for its international winners, and the date will likely surface on its social channels first.
Photos from Andrea Endicio’s Instagram account.