MISS Universe 1993 titleholder Dayanara Torres disputed reigning queen Fatima Bosch‘s remarks on the global tilt’s supposed requirement for candidates to have a good passport to win.
Talks of candidates being required to have a good visa made rounds after Miss Universe Organization (MUO) president Raul Rocha claimed that Cote d’Ivoire’s Olivia Yace didn’t win the crown due to her alleged weak passport.
Bosch was asked about Rocha’s controversial remarks in an interview with Telemundo’s Pica y se Extiende, via a People translation. She said that while she doesn’t know the “in-depth rules” for candidates to compete, she understood where the organization was coming from.
“What I would tell them is that they should all have the same chances of winning, obviously, regardless of their passport,” she was quoted as saying.
“But as an organization, you have to understand what a company is and there is work, so they have to look for someone to make the job easier. If you have to travel the world, obviously they need someone who can travel easily,” she continued.
Pica y se Extiende happens to be the talk show where Bosch allegedly walked out from, as she was asked by the hosts on the mounting controversies hounding the Miss Universe pageant earlier this month.
Reacting to Bosch’s controversial remarks that mirrored the stand of the MUO management, Torres said in a podcast interview with radio host Enrique Santos that she does not agree with the passport requirement issue, as everyone “had a chance to win.”
“Of course not,” Torres said in Spanish. “It was going well until she mentioned the visa thing [where] she agreed to that. How is it going to be like that?”
Looking back at her own experience, the Puerto Rican beauty queen said that the candidate’s travel history was not much of an issue in her time.
“At least in other years, it’s not like that. Everyone [can] go. Everyone can participate. Everyone has an equal chance to win. If this is so, then don’t send girls who are going to have a problem with [their] visa. That’s not fair,” she said.
Even though it’s been a month since Bosch’s win, her victory continues to be marred with criticism due to speculations of rigging and the alleged business links of her father with Rocha, compounded by the organization’s conflicting pageant requirements. The Mexican beauty queen, however, has stood firm and declared that she won the crown fair and square.
Torres was one of the global tilt’s hosts when Bosch was crowned as the winner in Bangkok, Thailand, along with former titleholder R’Bonney Gabriel.
Incidentally, Miss Universe earlier announced that the 2026 host country would be Puerto Rico, Torres’ home country. (Hannah Mallorca © Philippine Daily Inquirer)
