Filipina Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray is home, pursuing her advocacy for children.
Gray, who championed the care and education of children at the Miss Universe pageant held in December in Thailand, was asked by MJ Marfori in a one-on-one interview to voice out her view of the recent issues in the Philippines concerning children particularly about the Philippine Congress moves to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 12 or 9 years old.
The 2018 GNP Filipino Pride Icon was visibly concerned and said that it is important that there should be a refocus as to why these children are committing these crimes.
“I worked with a lot with children, and anyone knows that children are not disposed to do that kind of act or to act out that way. It’s really probably a consequence of their circumstance or their environment or external pressures – whether it be from people or circumstance,” said the Fil-Australian beauty title holder who has been working with children of the slums in Manila even before her Miss Universe campaign, even producing music videos for young Focus Philippines before she left for Thailand.
“As a nation I feel that we should focus on eradicating those external pressures,” Gray said in the News5 Features interview, proposing a better long-term solution by seeking out and educating the children, their parents, and their communities.
“Because once you label a child such…as a child in conflict with the law, how are you bringing them up to see themselves or the community to see them?” said the child advocate.
” ‘Cause children, they have so much potential. And their hearts are so pure. It’s just that sometimes their circumstance bears down on them or the people or what they are faced with bears down on them.
But if you just give them a chance, most of the time they just want to pursue a dream… they just want to be happy and we should give them a chance to do that,” Catriona said as she used her Miss Universe platform to continue to care about children.
It can be recalled the Gray clinched the Miss Universe 2018 crown with her response to the Q&A final question about how she will use her reign should she win.
“I worked a lot in the slums of Tondo, Manila, and the life there is very… the life there is poor and it’s very sad. And I’ve always taught myself to look for the beauty in it, to look for the beauty in the faces of the children, and to be grateful.
And I would bring this aspect as Miss Universe to see situations with the silver lining, and to assess where I could give something, where I could provide something as a spokesperson. And this, I think, if I could also teach people to be grateful, we could have an amazing world where negativity could not grow and foster. And children will have a smile on their faces.”
Catriona even made the children of Young Focus her first meet-up when she returned to the country briefly for the holidays after she won her crown.
Miss Universe Catriona Gray will be riding her Mayon-lava-red-hot-gown and Mikimoto-crown inspired float as she meets people in the streets from Pasay to Makati in Manila today at 2pm.
Catriona Gray says she wants to see the Filipino people at her homecoming. If you are going out to meet and cheer on Catriona Gray today – here is the route of the streets where her Grand Homecoming parade will pass through based from the MMDA info:
In an advisory, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) said the following roads would be affected by the closure for the homecoming parade of Miss Universe:
- J.W. Diokno Boulevard
- Atang dela Rama
- Vicente Sotto street
- Roxas Boulevard
- T.M. Kalaw
- Taft
- Gil Puyat Avenue
- Ayala Avenue
The MMDA said it would implement a stop-and-go traffic scheme on the roads once the parade starts at Sofitel Philippine Plaza at 2 p.m.
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