day. She was assigned by her father-in-law Jesus Amado Araneta y Sitchon to the post in June 1964, on her 28th birthday. Since 1964, she has been the organizer of Binibining Pilipinas (English: "Maiden Philippines or Miss Philippines"), which sends its winners to the Miss Universe and Miss International competitions. After the victory of Miss Philippines as the 18th Miss Universe in 1969, Araneta formally obtained her Filipino citizenship in the following year of 1970. Araneta is also a principal sponsor to the Roman Catholic wedding of Binibining Pilipinas Universe 2011, Shamcey Supsup. In 2019, after fifty years of service, Supsup succeeded Araneta for the Philippine franchise of Miss Universe. Controversy Araneta’s tenure as a national director is not without controversy. Former pageant candidates have been known to be disqualified at her final decision, often as a result of an immorality clause in the pageant contracts associated with sexualized photos discovered in the media during or after the pageant or the inability to obtain or renew a Philippine passport. Notable among this is in 1982, when Maria Isabel Lopez claimed that she was pressured to relinquish her title due to her having worked as a sexy lingerie model in a “Girard Peter Fashion Show” which was revealed post discovery. Nevertheless, Lopez maintained her tenacity and went to compete in at the 31st Miss Universe pageant. Similar cases of various other candidates occurred over the years, as disqualified for varying reasons ranging from sexualized photos irrespective of intent such as artistic creativity, charity purposes, or product endorsement (sexualized calendars) or direct self-pornography allegedly often without due process due to the immorality clause implemented by Araneta and her lawyers. Disqualified candidates such as Anjanette Abayari of USA (1991), Tisha Silang of Canada (1998) and Maria Venus Raj of Qatar (2010) due to issues of national citizenship having been born in Qatar and the lack of full set of citizenship documents causing the intervention of the Department of Foreign Affairs to make a controversial exception to grant a Philippine passport. Accordingly, Raj competed in 2010 and took placement as the 4th Runner Up in the 59th Miss Universe competition. Former Miss International Precious Lara Quigaman (2005) claimed on a public televised interview that she was dismissed of her tribute credentials as a winner of Miss International at the coronation night in 2009, allegedly gaining the disapproval of Araneta for starting her own separate