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A beauty queen from New Zealand who was in the Philippines to join an international beauty pageant has pulled out of the competition because of her alleged unpleasant experience in the country.
According to New Zealand news outlet Stuff.co.nz, beauty queen Nicole Harding said that she flew to the Philippines to join the Miss Pancontinental 2015 pageant.
Harding claimed that she and other contestants were flown to Cagayan de Oro City, where they were checked in at a hotel that a she compared to a “prison cell.”
She claimed that contestants were promised that all their expenses, including five-star hotel accommodations, would be covered by the pageant organizers.
According to Harding, they were transferred to another hotel a day after, but the new hotel seemed clueless about their arrival.
She also said that their luggage, together with two pageant organizers, and a photographer were held by the previous hotel since the organizers failed to settle the bill.
The beauty queen also claimed that a certain government official told them it was not safe to be in Cagayan de Oro City.
“We met with the Cagayan governor (sic) and he said it was not safe to be here, this place is more unsafe than Afghanistan. He told us, where we were, they kidnap people and use them as sex slaves, it’s the number one place for human trafficking and we needed to get these girls out of here,” Harding told Stuff.co.nz.
Harding said she decided to leave the Philippines before the pageant night upon the advice of an unnamed government official.
NZ Stuff reported that a Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokeswoman said the New Zealand embassy in the Philippines did not provide the advice to leave the area.
Harding reportedly spent USD$7,000 for her trip to the Philippines.
Pageant organizers have denied Harding’s allegations.
Ben Hitchcock, who is representing the Philippines in the Mister Pancontinental pageant, said he wants to visit Cagayan de Oro City again.
Hitchcock, who is half-British and half-Filipino, traces his roots in Iligan City, about an hour away from Cagayan de Oro.
Pageant organizers said the coronation night for the Mister and Miss Pancontinental pageant will go as planned on November 26 at Metrowalk in Ortigas. Greanne Mendoza / ABS-CBN News Northern Mindanao
Photo: Nicole Harding’s Facebook page
This article has been re-published with permission from ABS-CBNnews.com.
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