FIRST a campus queen, now a country's star.

Homegrown beauty queen Ilene Astrid De Vera was awarded the top prize as the 2017 Mutya ng Pilipinas-Asia Pacific International.

The ceremonies were held at the Newport Performing Arts Theater of Resorts World Manila, Pasay City, Friday night.

The win makes De Vera the Philippines' official representative to the global tilt in October.

In the question and answer portion, De Vera was asked: "If someday you’re lucky enough for a producer to make a movie version of your life, what would you choose as the title, and who would you like to portray your life?”

De Vera answered: “The first question is, what would I like to have as my movie, I would like to name it, 'Single Mom’s Child,’ and I would like to have myself portray it, portray the role of the child… because my mother was my inspiration in everything that I did, and I’m just so happy she raised me well as a person and I’m very happy to be here standing right now, to show her how proud I am too, thank you.”

De Vera, a Mass Communication graduate, was also crowned Miss University of the Philippines-Cebu in 2015.

Other big winners were Jennie Alipo-on (2017 Mutya ng Pilipinas-Tourism International), Hannah Iglesia (Mutya ng Pilipinas-Top Model of the World), Savannah Mari Gankiewicz of Hawaii (2017 Mutya ng Pilipinas-Overseas Communities) and Carla Sandigan (first runner-up) and Sofia Sibug (second runner-up). (LQ3)