Queen P’s advice to 2016 Bb. Pilipinas-Universe Maxine

It’s been about five months since Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach won the Miss Universe title, and last April 17, she officially turned over her Binibining Pilipinas-Universe crown to the new titleholder, Maxine Medina.

So you can expect that in the next few months, Queen P — as she has become more popularly known — will be fully focusing on her role as Miss Universe. She still has about eight months to go. In those eight months, Pia, aside from traveling and fulfilling her responsibilities as the current titleholder, will also be working to further the advocacies she mentioned in her response to the question “Why should you be the new Miss Universe?” in the Q&A portion.

Pia’s response then was that she saw being Miss Universe as both “an honor and a responsibility” and that if crowned, she would use her voice to promote certain causes, such as HIV/AIDS awareness and reach out to the youth.

That’s exactly what she’s been doing. “We’ve been working on quite a few of them,” she revealed at a press conference at the Novotel Hotel to welcome her home a few days before the Binibining Pilipinas pageant. Pia was accompanied to the press conference by Stella Marquez-Araneta of the Binibining Pilipinas Charities, Inc. and some officials from the Miss Universe Organization, including her manager Ester Swan.

“Whenever I’m not too busy on social media, which we try to be from time to time, it’s because I’ve been training with an organization to educate myself on HIV awareness,” said Pia. “So I’m learning statistics worldwide and I’m learning about the statistics here in the Philippines, and I’m learning, how do people get tested? How much does it cost? All of these things.”

She’s been working hard. “I can guarantee you guys, I am doing my homework. I did my homework for three years to win the Miss Philippines-Universe crown. Of course, I will do my homework now especially that I have the whole world watching me,” she assured the media.

On the issue of cyber-bullying, she has some things coming up that, she explained, she would rather keep quiet for now so as not to pre-empt them.

She is also into disaster relief. There are a lot of areas in the Philippines that have yet to fully recover from natural calamities, and Pia wants to reach out to them. It turns out, she is also a passionate advocate for the environment.

“I’d like for you guys to see what we’ll come up with in the future and that is something that is very close to me, and I asked myself, if we were to partner with a certain organization that would give us a project, like, what is it that you wanna do? And I said, I wanna come back here, to the Philippines, and I wanna rebuild from places that have been hit by the calamities. Because what’s happening is, OK, a typhoon comes in, then there are a lot of damages and fatalities and somehow it’s all over the news, and people come in and help us, but what about a few months after that? What’s happening right now? That’s what I want to know. Is it still happening? Is there food? Are the schools still being built? Just because it’s not in the news doesn’t mean that we have to forget about it so that’s what I told her. (We should be doing) long-term prevention, and I also wanna know what’s happening at the moment. We’ll work on that.”

Turning over her crown was a bittersweet moment for Pia, who even received a sweet message from her rumored boyfriend, Sexiest Doctor Alive Mikhail “Mike” Varshavski. The message, which was posted on Instagram, went viral on social media.

Pia has so much advice for Maxine, who will now be facing a big challenge and pressure to score a back-to-back win for the country in the Miss Universe pageant.

“Now that I’m already Miss Universe, she has to be prepared in a lot of aspects, not just with how she’s going to maintain her beauty, but she has to have genuine interest in what’s going on in the country and in the world. Because as you’ve seen in the last Miss Universe pageant, they ask questions about your country. So you have to be aware of what’s going on in the news. You have to understand and have an opinion. You have to be well-spoken. You have to be brave.”

Based on her experience, Pia says that preparing goes way beyond the actual contest itself.

“It’s not just a one-day thing. Not ‘Okay, I’m gonna win the crown on Sunday,’ but are you ready for Monday? And what about Tuesday? And what about the next three months? What about that one month before your flight? Are you prepared? Physically, mentally, emotionally? Spiritually? Holistically, are you prepared? Are you ready to go into that room and wear that sash that says ‘Philippines’ and wear it proud?”

But her biggest realization? When she took her final walk, Pia said: “In the years that I’ve appeared on this very same stage, my biggest realization is that you should never give up on your dreams. Way to go, Queen P!