Who is Michelle Dee, the newly crowned Miss Universe Philippines 2023?

Beauty queen Michelle Dee, who floored judges on Saturday by saying the best thing the Philippines can offer the world is its people, their warmth and hospitality, is now set to represent her country at the global Miss Universe pageant.

Dee, 28, an actress and model, represented the City of Makati and beat 37 others to be crowned Miss Universe Philippines 2023 on Saturday.

At the competition's final round at SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay, the top-five candidates were given the same question. In reference to the Philippines’ new tourism slogan “we give the world our best”, Dee was what was the best the country could offer the world, to which she answered its greatest asset were the people.

From left, last year's winner Celeste Cortesi with Miss Universe Philippines 2023 Michelle Dee and reigning Miss Universe 2022 R'Bonney Gabriel. Photo: Instagram / themissuniverseph

“The Philippines is home to very beautiful natural resources, from the beaches to the mountains, but I believe that the best natural resources that the Philippines has is us Filipinos," she said. "We are the true heart and soul of the Philippines with the way we are hospitable, with the warm smiles ... and we are the reason why the world keeps coming back for more."

The Philippines is considered a powerhouse in pageant circles, with global beauty contests still obsessively followed across the country.

Pageantry is in her blood

Dee's mother, actress and producer Melanie Marquez, is a former beauty queen, having won the Miss International crown in 1979. As a pageant promoter, Marquez has also trained many beauty queens who've gone to represent on the Philippines on the international stage.

Dee's cousin, actress and model Winwyn Marquez, is also a beauty queen, and was crowned Miss Reina Hispoamericana — which celebrates Hispanic beauties — in 2017.

Dee has also represented the Philippines at a global pageant, having won Miss World Philippines in 2019. She finished in the top 12 at the Miss World competition, held in London, where Jamaica's Toni-Ann Singh was crowned winner that year.

Michelle Dee winning Miss World Philippines in 2019. Photo: ABS-CBN News

"People ask me why I do this time and time again," Dee said in the run-up to Miss Universe Philippines. "My answer is simple: purpose and passion. And for each year that I've joined I come with a burning passion to raise awareness for the advocacies I champion and with a purpose, to use myself and my voice for the greater good of our fellow kababayans.

"Every time I step on a stage, I am aware that I am not only doing this for myself, but I’m doing this for every Filipino who has ever had a dream they're fighting to achieve. This is why every time, I give my all because I know that what I am doing is so much bigger than myself and to be given the chance to shed light on these advocacies and beliefs is truly the prize in this whole journey."

A psychology graduate, Dee is only the second Filipina to win both the Miss World Philippines and Miss Universe Philippines crowns, after Catriona Gray.

Gray was a Miss World Philippines winner in 2016 before she won Binibining Pilipinas in 2018 and earned the chance to represent her country at the Miss Universe pageant. She was crowned Miss Universe 2018 a few months later, becoming the fourth Filipina to win the crown.

Gray congratulated Dee on her win on Saturday, saying: "Excited to witness how you'll carry our sash again!".

Dee will hope to repeat Gray's success at the Miss Universe 2023 pageant, to be held in El Salvador, the date for which has yet to be announced.

"It's not done until it's won," she posted on Instagram soon after her win. "That has been my mindset not just for this year but for all the times I joined Miss Universe Philippines. No matter how it looks, it never got easier to prepare for each time I would compete.

"Each year was full of hard work, sacrifices and risks that I hope pay off at the end. Winning this year validates not just to me but to every Filipino that with hard work, perseverance and passion, you can achieve anything."

Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts

Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.

The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.

Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.

More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.

The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.

Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:

November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.

May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.

April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.

February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.

December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.

July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.

May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.

New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.

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Who is Michelle Dee, the newly crowned Miss Universe Philippines 2023?

The psychology graduate is the daughter of former beauty queen Melanie Marquez

Pageantry is in her blood

Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts