Queens Katarina, Mariel take pride in being Pinays amid ‘half breed batch’ criticisms

Fans of pageants are always looking for that "gandang Pinay" and even before Filipino-British Rachel Peters took the Binibining Pilipinas Universe crown, talk of representation quickly began to circulate.

Aside from Peters, Filipino-Australian Chanel Olive Thomas and Filipino-Romanian Elizabeth Clenci were also crowned, which according to a tweet by fellow beauty queen Mariel De Leon prompted the backlash.

De Leon stepped up to defend their batch and said, "Both my parents are Filipinos so I have no idea why people keep saying this batch of queens are all half breeds?"

Both my parents are Filipinos so I have no idea why people keep saying this batch of queens are all half breeds??? ????

— Mariel de Leon (@mariaangelicadl) May 6, 2017

Binibining Pilipinas Intercontinental 2017 Katarina Rodriguez followed suit and on Tuesday declared that she is pure Filipina in an #AskKatarina segment.

Yes! Dad is from Davao mom from Manila :) https://t.co/uDeaR22cbO

— Katarina (@KatarinaRodri) May 9, 2017

???????? pic.twitter.com/LsK6CO16VO

— Katarina (@KatarinaRodri) May 2, 2017

On coronation night, socialite Tim Yap trended when he mused online that "Some of the girls don’t look like they come from the provinces they represent."

Yap had apologized for the tweet and said he believes everyone is beautiful, regardless of where they came from. —Aya Tantiangco/KG, GMA News