THE BB. PILIPINAS management has decided to take back the crown from Maria Venus Raj who earlier won as Bb. Pilipinas Universe. This is reportedly due to inconsistencies discovered in her birth records and her personal account of her birth. Venus has a Pinay mom and an Indian father and it seems there's a question about her nationality, this despite the fact that she grew up in Bicol. It will be recalled that citizenship problems also caused the dethronement of past Bb. Pilipinas Universe titlist like Anjanette Abayari (1991, born in the U.S.), Tisha Silang (1998, born in Canada), and Janelle Bautista (1999, born in the U.S.) We just can't understand why those in charge of the pageant cannot detect such citizenship problems early on so as to prevent dethronement of winning candidates that can be traumatic and embarrassing for them. With Venus out, runners up Diane Necio or Nicolette Henson might take her place as our next Miss Universe representative.
