Drilon: Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach wants to join politics

Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach. MAILA AGER/INQUIRER.net

Updated @ 1:32 p.m., Jan. 25, 2016, to add details

Originally posted @ 12:43 p.m., Jan. 25, 2016.

Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach wants to join politics, Senate President Franklin Drilon bared on Monday.

Drilon made this disclosure shortly after Wurtzbach paid a courtesy call at the Senate to receive a copy of the resolution, congratulating and commending her for her victory last December.

“She intimated to me that she wants to join politics,” the Senate leader said at a press conference.

“You know given her politically conscious responses to the questions, I’m not surprised. The questions are very political, the presence of the American troops, the matter of the HIV, the matter of her views on a number of political issues,” he said.

Drilon was referring to Wurtzbach’s answer during the Miss Universe 2015 pageant last December where she was asked about her view on the reestablishment of US military bases in the Philippines. Wurtzbach said, she had no problem with it, noting the two countries’ strong ties.

But instead of encouraging her to join the “very nasty business of politics,” the Senate leader said he advised the newly-crowned Miss Universe to first try an appointive government post, where she could push her advocacies.

“I advised her that if she’s really interested in joining government, to first try her hand on some appointive positions where she can push her advocacies rather than join politics,” he said. He added, however, that “she indeed expressed her interest in joining government.”

Drilon said it was “very admirable” for a young woman like Wurtzbach to be interested in politics “given the political divide that we see in our country today.”

Asked if he invited the beauty queen to join the Liberal Party, where he is vice chair, Drilon said her advocacies should not be equated with joining a political party. CB