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Miss Philippines Earth 2025 Joy Barcoma has expressed deep disappointment over the recent controversial remarks made by Filipino-American pageant titleholders Brandon Espiritu and Jether Palomo regarding “halfies” in pageantry.
Barcoma emphasized that her issue lies within the mindset, noting how disheartening it is for individuals to represent the Philippines internationally while looking down on Filipinos. While she called for local pageant systems to implement stricter cultural rules such as requiring candidates to understand basic Tagalog she also urged the public to reflect on why they often put Eurocentric features on a pedestal. | via Luis Antonio Legado/CMU, Sunstar intern
