The 50th anniversary kickoff of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) served as a gathering of beauty queens, with titleholders serving as the teams’ muses, led by Miss Universe Philippines 2025 Ahtisa Manalo.
Aside from Manalo, her 2025 national pageant batchmates, Laguna’s Eloisa Jauod, and current The Miss Philippines-Cosmo Chelsea Fernandez were also at the PBA kickoff event.
Fernandez waxed emotional as she shared a photo of a pageant observer’s page wherein the three of them are posing side by side with their respective muse sashes. ‘My queens,’ she posted.
Manalo will represent the Philippines in the coming Miss Universe pageant in Thailand next month, while Fernandez will compete in the Miss Cosmo contest in Vietnam in December.
Also among the muses was 2024 Binibining Pilipinas International Myrna Esguerra, who is set to compete in the 63rd Miss International pageant in Tokyo, Japan, next month.
‘My First PBA opening appearance (I’m so lucky because Queen Ahtisa was also present and I finally got the opportunity to have a picture with her),’ she posted on Instagram.
Manalo was also a Binibining Pilipinas titleholder and was sent to the 2018 Miss International pageant, where she finished second overall.
Also at the event was Manalo’s Miss Universe Philippines predecessor Chelsea Manalo, the reigning Miss Universe Asia.
The PBA kicked off its golden anniversary in a grand celebration held at the Smart Araneta Coliseum at the Araneta City in Quezon City on Sunday, Oct. 5.