Shamcey Supsup, Miss Philippines 2011, emerged as the 3rd Runner Up in the 2011 Miss Universe pageant held in Sao Paolo, Brazil. Her question, asked by American actress Vivica Fox, “Would you change your religious beliefs to marry the person that you love? Why or why not?” She answered, without pause and the only one without an interpreter: “If I would have to change my religious beliefs, I would not marry the person that I love. Because the first person that I love is God, who created me. I have my faith and my principles, and this is what makes me who I am. If the person loves me, he’ll love my God, too.” Here’s the video:

While Miss Angola Leila Lopes bagged the Miss Universe crown, a number of personalities admired Shamcey Supsup, especially during the question and answer portion. On the other hand, there are a number of not-too-positive reactions, including criticisms against Miss Universe Judge Lea Salonga (who has no control of what question to ask) and against Ms. Angola (she’s beautiful, to be fair). There’s also a hoax about the purported statement issued by the Queen of Talk, Oprah Winfrey: “I have reservations with the results. If the only basis is the Q and A portion, after having been trimmed down to 5, Ms. Philippines deserved to win. What made her different from the rest is that she had no seconds to rethink of her answer as she had no interpreter to break the ice. The rest had their interpreters and having breaks on seconds to think about their answers. Hands down, Ms. Philippines answered straight to the point.”

Shamcey, an architecture board topnotcher in 2010 and a cum laude graduate from the University of the Philippines (UP), landed in the Top 5 of the 89 beautiful women from around the world. This is one notch higher than the 4th runner up win of Venus Raj in the 2010 Miss Universe. Congratulations, Shamcey. You make the Philippines proud! Go Philippines!