At 32, Kristzan Delos Santos had already decided that pageantry was behind him. It had given him what it was going to give him: two international runner-up finishes, one in 2022, one in 2023, both close enough to sting and neither one his. Then he went back to work. His life moved on. The pageants, he assumed, were someone else’s story now. Then, in 2025, he happened to watch a male national pageant. That same day — not a week later, not after he’d slept on it — a screening poster for Misters of Filipinas, the annual national competition that sends Filipino male titleholders to a slate of international pageants, showed up on his feed. “Something about the timing felt like a sign,” Kristzan tells ELYSPLANET. “It sparked something in me again and made me think, ‘Maybe I’m not done yet.’” Apparently, he wasn’t. On Sept. 13, Kristzan flies to Istanbul, Türkiye, carrying the Philippine sash into the Top Model of Universe finals. He’ll also be carrying a considerable amount of luggage — the unavoidable …