After winning the Miss Photogenic Award in three consecutive years since 2005 via online voting, the Philippine delegate to the Miss Universe pageant this year should no longer expect bagging the "infamous" crystal trophy.

The organizers of the Miss Universe pageant finally realized that the Miss Photogenic Award is becoming a travesty every year because the Philippines has been winning it for three years in a row. This is because the photogenic award was being selected by the public via internet voting at NBC.com. And Filipinos are one of the most internet savvy (if not the most) in the world, hence, we are the no. 1 user of online social networking sites like Friendster and Multiply.

This year, it was decided that there will no longer be a Miss Photogenic award via online voting. But starting Monday, people can vote for the Best in National Costume Award via NBC.com, the official site of the network airing the Miss Universe pageant.

They changed the award but the process is still the same? So does it mean our very own Jennifer Barrientos will win Best in National Costume? Maybe. Maybe not.

They already picked 10 finalists for the Best in National Costume Award and they are:

-Albania, Matilda Mecini
-Colombia, Taliana Vargas
-Dominican Republic, Marianne Cruz
-India, Simran Kaur
-Kosovo, Zana Krasniqi
-Mexico, Elisa Najera
-Peru, Karol Castillo
-South Africa, Tansey Coetzee
-Venezuela, Dayana Mendoza
-Vietnam, Nguyen Thuy Lam

So maybe the public can only choose from these 10 contestants and my fearless forecast is that Nguyen Thuy Lam, Miss Vietnam is gonna win it! But if they open the poll with all 80 contestants vying for the award, then Miss Philippines won another special award…again.

Nevertheless, here are my picks for Miss Photogenic:

Miss India

Miss South Africa

Miss Venezuela

Miss Colombia

And of course, the Angelina Jolie look-alike, Miss Philippines 🙂