Herlene Budol has withdrawn from the Miss Planet International 2022 beauty pageant that was taking place in Uganda, as revealed in a statement by her talent manager Wilbert Tolentino.
“Due to uncertainties by the organizers, I have decided to withdraw Herlene Nicole Budol from the competition despite numerous [attempts] to fix some pageant debacles. It seems like the Ugandan government has no initiative to intervene. We apologize to the supporters, who were rooting for [us] since day one. To the team, sponsors, and designers. Thank you and I am sorry,” he said.
“Thank you to the Filipino community in Uganda for the comfort and well wishes. Especially to Yiga Ventures, Hassan Yiga & Rama-dhan Kimbugwe and his team for protecting and keeping my queen, Herlene, and her team safe,” he continued. “For me as, MPP National Director, I am very hurt, not only we lost a crown, lost of money, lost of effort; but lost time. But we will never lose hope, because we have [a] bright future back home awaits.”
“This is indeed a traumatic experience for all of us, but we fought for it until the end. And that is our mission,” he ended his statement.
It is unknown if the beauty pageant itself has been canceled.
Earlier, Wilbert mentioned that many beauty queens had to back out of the competition due to their failure to enter the country after encountering issues with not being vaccinated against Yellow Fever, an Ebola virus scare, and having to book their own hotels.
Herlene also revealed in an Instagram post last week that her National Costume was reportedly mishandled by Ethiopian Airlines and that the main piece didn’t make it to Uganda.
She has yet to make an official statement of her own regarding her withdrawal from the pageant.
(ALSO READ: LOOK: ‘Hipon Girl’ Herlene Budol Graduates From College)
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