MANILA – Filipino pageant fans, rejoice: the next Miss Universe pageant will be held here in the Philippines.

On Thursday, Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo announced that Miss Universe will be held in the country on January 30, 2017.

"We have a president who comes from Mindanao, and our Miss Universe is from Mindanao, so I think this is the best time for us to do the Miss Universe here in the Philippines," she said.

"So I would like to inform everybody that the Miss Universe beauty pageant will be on January 30, 2017 here in the Philippines."

Teo went on to assure that the government "is not going to spend a single centavo" on the international pageant.

"It will be the private sector that will shoulder the expenses," she said, citing a budget of $11 million.

Reigning Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach recently met with President Rodrigo Duterte at Malacañang to discuss the possibility of holding the next edition of the pageant here in the country.

The Philippines has so far hosted the Miss Universe pageant twice – in 1974 and 1994.

(July 21, 1974: PH hosts Miss Universe for first time)

Wurtzbach is the third Filipina to win the crown, along with Margie Moran in 1973 and Gloria Diaz in 1969.

The country will be fielding Maxine Medina, a 25-year-old interior designer who has been modelling since 2008, in next year's pageant. She will attempt to succeed Wurtzbach, the first Filipina to win the title in over four decades.