
Current Miss Universe Philippines Ahtisa Manalo has achieved a social media milestone as she reaches the one million follower mark on her Instagram account.
The Miss Universe Philippines organization announced on its official Instagram account, uploading a poster celebrating the achievement. In the caption to the post, the organization wrote that the milestone “is a testament to her impact, her grace, and the love she inspires in every Filipino.”
Ahtisa recently arrived in the Philippines earlier today after her initial arrival was rescheduled due to “recent adjustments”.
Ahtisa's Instagram milestone comes after her recent Miss Universe 2025 performance, where she placed third runner-up after her response to the question “If you win the title of Miss Universe tonight, how would you use this platform to empower young girls?"
Ahtisa's response was “I work with an organization called Alon Akademie, where we work with young people to provide them opportunities to make them realize that it doesn't matter what your life circumstances is, it doesn't. I want to continue working with Alon Academy and a bigger platform like Miss Universe to pursue making sure that people who come from low-income backgrounds are given the same opportunities as everyone else. Thank you."
Ahtisa's performance in the question and answer round came after her strong showing in the evening gown competition, where she wore a Val Taguba creation.
Even during the preliminary round, Ahtisa put in a strong performance, first with her mollusk-inspired midnight blue gown with gold embellishments named Pinctada. The name comes from the Pinctada maxima, a species of pearl oyster that is the largest in the world.
In the caption to one of its posts about Ahtisa's evening gown for the preliminary round, the Miss Universe Philippines organization said that Ahtisa in the gown “delivered pure elegance, radiating like the golden shell that cradles the South Sea pearl.”
Ahtisa also caught attention with her Festejada national costume that features a traje de mestiza made from hand-embroidered piña and a skirt made from “65,000 individual petals” and tells the story of the country's “greatest festivals,” from “the giant lanterns of Pampanga, the colors of Pahiyas, and the blooms of Panagbenga.”