Newly-crowned Miss Universe Philippines 2025 Ahtisa Manalo won the country’s grandest pageant prize in her second try, and on her coronation night, the 27-year-old Quezon Province native pulled off one of the most memorable comeback performances en route to the coveted crown:
Fell on stage. Slayed the QnA. And won the crown.
Ahtisa was glowing like a true queen all-competition long, from her Top 24 moment, to getting one of the loudest cheers during her swimsuit walk.
The Quezon Province bet came out of the LED background wearing the brightest of smiles, flaunting her Miss U curves in her pink Val Taguba gown, lending intentional stares for the camera and into the crowd when she suddenly appeared to have twisted an ankle before dropping to the floor.
Ahtisa was just about to start her dazzling turn in evening gown when she tripped to the ground.
Her face turned into a beautiful abstract art of sorts. Smiling through the unforeseen. Smiling greatly and gracefully on her split-second way down to her knees. She never lost the grace and energy befitting the strongly hyped Miss Universe Philippines contender that she’s been since the start of the competition.
Ahtisa wasted no time. She immediately located her balance and, in one quick motion, helped herself up with very minimal gestures.
She continued with, and concluded her evening gown moment with just as much finesse and flow– as if she didn’t just come from what many would consider a pageant day nightmare.
The fall was an instant canon moment. One could say that her evening gown stumble paved the way for Ahtisa’s brilliant and strongly grounded answer during the question-and-answer portion.
“They say that a good leader leads by example, tell us about one event in your life when you led by example and the impact it made,” asked Kapuso actor and host Xian Lim.
“I fell a while ago on stage,” Ahtisa had no hesitation in starting her response with a reference to her fall, receiving loud cheers from the crowd as she let out a radiating smile.
“And the thing with me is whenever I fall in life, I always make sure I come back stronger,” she continued, before taking another pause to allow for more applause.
“Last year I was here on this stage and for the second time this year I am here putting everything on this stage to be Ms. Universe Philippines, and because this is my and my grandmother’s shared dream, and this is my ode to her,” she concluded.
The answer brimmed with deliberate confidence and sounded tense-free. Across the subjective manner-matter-method criteria of speech, Ahtisa made sure to deliver.
It felt as though she had weaponized that very crucial, arguably embarrassing, moment, and effectively used it to her advantage. Her answer felt more grounded and true-to-heart.
Everybody watching, live at the SM MOA Arena and digitally on stream, knew exactly what she referenced. They were all witnesses to that ‘event in her life’ where she “fell on stage,” and so when she said “I always make sure I come back stronger,” the comeback felt more visual.
She used up every bit of the 30 seconds allotted, concluding with a trademark mention of her dearest grandmother, who, according to Ahtisa, passed away early this year.
Ahtisa’s impactful performance in the question-and-answer portion was the proper denouement to an MUPH 2025 story that concluded with the Jewelmer crown on her head.
From winning Binibining Pilipinas-International in 2018, to a second runner-up finish and Miss Cosmo PH appointment at last year’s Miss Universe PH, to finally winning it all, it feels as though Ahtisa trained really hard for her alignment-of-the stars moment, and only God knows if anybody would have done a more graceful job at making such a comeback.
