Raven Lansangan is campaigning for votes right now. The Kapampangan flight attendant leaves for Colombo, Sri Lanka on September 3, competing against 31 other delegates for the 24th edition of Manhunt International — one of the oldest male pageants in the world, running since 1993. A day later, on September 4, John Eriq Bonifacio boards his own flight, to Nha Trang, Vietnam, for Mister Cosmopolitan. Two Filipino men, both carrying titles from Mister Pilipinas Worldwide (MPW) — the franchise that funnels Filipino male delegates into pageants like these — in the air within 24 hours of each other, closing out two very different chapters of the same organization’s backlog.
Lansangan’s chapter is the older one, and this isn’t his first time on an international pageant stage. Back in 2017, he competed at Mister International under PEPPS, the pageant organization behind Misters of Filipinas. He actually won his current national title, Manhunt Philippine Male Supermodel 2025, at MPW’s 2025 edition — and has spent the year since as unfinished business, even after MPW quietly passed his own national title on to this year’s JP Gundayao back in April. Nationally, Lansangan’s already a “former” titleholder. Internationally, he’s still the guy actually representing the country, because MPW’s succession calendar and its competition calendar don’t run on the same clock. It’s an awkward setup, but not a new one for this organization — and it means Lansangan spent his final stretch before flying out doing the one thing that actually matters now: courting the public vote that could carry him into Manhunt’s placements.
What he’s chasing is bigger than one pageant. The Philippines has won Manhunt International exactly once — June Macasaet, in 2012, still the only Filipino ever to take the full crown — but has come agonizingly close three times since: Joshua Raphael de Sequera (first runner-up, 2022), Kenneth Stromsnes (second runner-up, 2024), and Jordan Jose San Juan (third runner-up, 2025). Three straight podium finishes without a second win is exactly the kind of streak that makes the next attempt feel higher-stakes than the last, and Lansangan is the one carrying it into Sri Lanka.
The Other Half of the Backlog Already Closed
Bonifacio isn’t the first MPW rep to fly out this year, but he is closing a different, more recent gap. That distinction actually belongs to Kitt Cortez, who won Mister Pilipinas-Eco International back in 2025 and spent over a year waiting for his own international debut to materialize — the Mister Eco International pageant didn’t exist yet when he won. It finally launched this June, in Manila, with the Philippines as host country. Cortez took second runner-up, co-hosted that same night by Miss Universe Philippines Bea Millan-Windorski and 2025 Miss World Asia Krishnah Gravidez. So by the time Bonifacio takes off next month, MPW’s actual backlog of past winners who haven’t yet competed is functionally empty — Lansangan is genuinely the last one standing.
Bonifacio’s own path here started with far less glamour than a Manila coronation stage. At 18, he was working as an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) in Dubai. He came home, built a construction company he still runs today, picked up Mister Pampanga 2024 along the way, and inherits the Cosmopolitan title from Kenneth Marcelino, who finished first runner-up at the 2025 edition in Bangkok — the mark Bonifacio is now trying to clear in Nha Trang.
The President Who Just Got Cut
MPW itself is being run by a man whose own competitive year hasn’t exactly been smooth. Daumier “Dom” Corilla — the organization’s president since it went independent — is the Philippines’ first-ever Mister Global winner, a title he took in Bangkok in October 2024, one of a genuinely small number of Philippine wins in men’s international pageantry over the past couple of years. Before that, he was a Manhunt International Top 10 finisher back in 2020, which makes MPW’s current leadership less an outside hire and more an alum running the same pipeline he came up through.
That résumé didn’t carry over into Century Tuna Superbods 2026, the country’s long-running fitness and physique competition now in its 20th year. Corilla entered this year’s edition and, at the Final Callback in July, missed the cut for the Top 40 finalists entirely — a result that sparked real conversation online given his pageant pedigree. He took it publicly in stride, posting on Instagram that he was happy for the friends who did make it and might try again sometime. One of the men who did make that Top 40 cut, incidentally, is MJ Ordillano — MPW’s own Mister Pilipinas-Global 2026, who heads to Thailand for Mister Global on October 11. The organization’s president got cut from a competition one of his own titleholders is currently still in.
What’s Actually Left to Watch
Once Lansangan and Bonifacio land, the rest of MPW’s 2026 class follows close behind: John Wayne Alba defends Kirk Bondad’s Mister International crown in Bangkok on September 26, Ordillano competes in Thailand on October 11, and Enzo Bonoan — the surprise eighth title MPW added on finals night in April, with no sash even handed to him on stage — heads to Vietnam for the first-ever running of Mister Cosmo. That leaves one result already in: Felipe Bayani Escudero Marasigan, Mister Pilipinas Supranational 2026, has already represented the country at Mister Supranational, covered separately. Three more titleholders, JP Gundayao, Godfrey Murillo, and Jason Lopez, won’t get their own international turn until 2027, which means the class of 2026 is still, for now, mostly a promise rather than a result.
The full 2026 lineup — every Filipino man competing internationally this year, MPW’s contingent included — is being tracked as each of these plays out.
Field Notes: Who’s Traveling, and When
| Titleholder | MPW Title | International Assignment | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raven Lansangan | Manhunt Philippine Male Supermodel 2025 | Manhunt International, Colombo | Sept 3–9, 2026 |
| John Eriq Bonifacio | Mister Pilipinas Cosmopolitan 2026 | Mister Cosmopolitan, Nha Trang | Sept 4–14, 2026 |
| John Wayne Alba | Mister Pilipinas International 2026 | Mister International, Bangkok | Sept 26, 2026 |
| Myron Jude “MJ” Ordillano | Mister Pilipinas Global 2026 | Mister Global, Thailand | Oct 11, 2026 |
| Lorenzo Mari “Enzo” Bonoan | Mister Pilipinas Cosmo 2026 (surprise 8th title) | Mister Cosmo (inaugural), Vietnam | TBD |
| Kitt Cortez | Mister Pilipinas Eco International 2025 | Mister Eco International, Manila | Already competed — 2nd runner-up |
| Felipe Bayani Escudero Marasigan | Mister Pilipinas Supranational 2026 | Mister Supranational | Already competed — Top 20 |
| John Paul “JP” Gundayao | Mister Pilipinas Manhunt International 2026 | Manhunt International | 2027 |
| Godfrey Nikolai Murillo | Mister Pilipinas Eco International 2026 | Mister Eco International | 2027 |
| Jason Romeo Lopez | Mister Pilipinas Worldwide 2026 | Mister Worldwide | 2027 (ambassadorial role in the interim) |
Worth knowing: Manhunt International, founded in 1993, is recognized as one of the first international competitions built specifically for men. The Philippines’ only outright win came in 2012 (June Macasaet); its most recent streak is three consecutive runner-up finishes since 2022. Mister Pilipinas Worldwide (MPW) is the national franchise; Mister Worldwide, its own top-level international counterpart, is a separate pageant.
Corrections/verification pending: Bonoan’s Mister Cosmo travel date is TBD per available reporting as of this writing.