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A post shared by Ma Ahtisa Manalo (@ahtisa) on Jun 10, 2019 at 9:15pm PDT

MANILA – Ahtisa Manalo was accused by some pageant fans of making a publicity stunt after backing out of Miss Universe Philippines 2020 a day after filing her application.

• Ahtisa Manalo backs out of Miss Universe Philippines race

And she could no longer take it sitting down as she commented on the “blind item” post of the local blog Titas of Pageantry, which called out a beauty queen for supposedly playing with fans’ emotions after withdrawing from a competition.

“I think this is too much, Tita Lavinia. What did I do wrong?” Manalo said, addressing the person behind the now-viral post.

“Don’t you think it’s too much for you to accuse me of playing with other people’s emotions? Please remember that I am still a person – I get hurt, I have problems of my own, I have a hundred other things happening in my life away from what you see,” she added.

“You based your opinion on what you think, this time try to base it on the truth because this post of yours is cultivating negativity.”

The beauty queen went on to explain her side of the story: “I passed my application the latest I can so people wouldn’t see I went there, because I wasn’t 100% sure I’ll push through. I did my preparations as quietly as possible because my decision wasn’t final yet.”

Before her withdrawal, Manalo was considered one of the strongest contenders in the first-ever Miss Universe Philippines competition, which is scheduled on May 3 at the Mall of Asia Arena.

She was crowned Binibining Pilipinas International in 2018, and went on to finish first runner-up in Miss International.