All posts tagged: Binibining Pilipinas

Filipina Queens - Big Four

Meet The Filipina Queens Vying for a Crown in 2026: The Full List

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The Big Four, plus two — and possibly more. There are a lot of beauty pageants out there, and while we try to cover them all as they happen, this post zooms in on the Filipinas crowned domestically to carry the Philippine sash into this year’s major international pageants. We start with the four that make up our Big Four: Miss Universe, Miss International, Miss World, and Miss Earth. Then we add two more — the fast-rising Miss Grand International (via the new Reina Filipinas pipeline) and the recently concluded Miss Supranational — to make it a list of six. One title is already decided; five are still to be settled between now and November, and two of the host organizations haven’t locked their exact dates yet. Here’s where each stands, in the order their competitions fall on the calendar. We’ll update this post as we spotlight more Filipina queens in the months ahead. Help us decide who deserves the spotlight next — comment below with which pageant queens you want us to cover. Maria …

Angelica Lopez for Miss Grand International 2026 head shot

Angelica Lopez Was Told She Wasn’t the Type. She’s About to Get a Second Chance to Prove It Anyway.

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In October 2024, Angelica Lopez narrowly missed the semifinal cut at Miss International, finishing outside the Top 20. She didn’t get another crack at that specific pageant. What she got instead this August was a brand-new one: Reina Filipinas’ first-ever Grand International crown, and with it, a second international shot, this time at Miss Grand International in India this October, with the exact date still unannounced. Most coverage of her Aug. 7 win at the Newport Performing Arts Theater treated it as a launch-night story about a franchise that changed hands under complicated circumstances. That’s a real story, and worth knowing. It’s not really her story, though. Hers is about what happens when you’re told, more than once, that you don’t look like the answer — and you keep entering anyway. Three Pageants, One Answer She Refused to Accept Lopez has now taken this particular road four times. She placed Top 16 at Miss Universe Philippines 2022. She won Binibining Pilipinas International outright in 2023, beating a field that included Katrina Anne Johnson — now …

Katrina Anne Johnson - Binibining Pilipinas International 2025 - feature

Katrina Anne Johnson Spent Two Years Being Told No Before Anyone Handed Her a Crown

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Katrina Anne Johnson has thirteen dogs. Not adopted-on-a-whim, telegenic-puppy dogs — a mix of senior dogs, rescues from abuse and neglect, animals with special needs, one who gets around in a wheelchair. She’s a licensed pharmacist from Davao who spends her actual working hours dispensing precision, and outside of it, spends her time and money on the animals nobody else was going to take. That combination — clinical patience professionally, hard-earned patience personally — is the through-line of how she actually became a titleholder, and it’s a more interesting story than the one usually told about her. The short version most coverage runs with: Johnson won Binibining Pilipinas International 2025, becoming the first candidate from Davao to hold that specific crown, and she’s now bound for Miss International 2026 on Nov. 25 in Tokyo — one of six Filipinas carrying a national crown into an international final this year. The part that gets skipped is that this wasn’t her first attempt at the sash, and the version of her that lost the first time is …

Binibining Pilipinas 2026 winners final

These Binibining Pilipinas 2026 Queens Already Lost Once — On Purpose, Sort Of

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Here’s a version of the pageant story you don’t hear as often: two women compete for the same crown, don’t get it, and instead of disappearing from the circuit, go on to win something arguably harder to get. That’s exactly what happened to Gwendoline Meliz Soriano and Sasha-Juli Belle Lacuna. Both represented their provinces at Miss Universe Philippines 2025. Neither one walked away with the crown. Both came back this July and won Binibining Pilipinas instead — the pageant that predates Miss Universe Philippines by over half a century, and the one a lot of pageant purists still consider the real prize. The Long Way Around Soriano’s road here started with a withdrawal, not a win. She was set to represent Pangasinan at Binibining Pilipinas back in 2022 and pulled out for personal reasons before ever reaching the stage. She spent the years after building an actual career instead — professional runway modeling, a stint on Kwentong Jollibee that pulled in over 10 million views, work with established Filipino designers — before trying again through …