MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles) – Forget all the controversy surrounding Sunday’s Binibining Pilipinas (Miss Philippines) pageant contestants and judges. There’s a bigger controversy brewing involving pageant host, singer-actress Toni Gonzaga.

Gonzaga co-hosted the televised pageant finals at the Araneta Coliseum with the very good-looking Xiam Lim.

The female host got mixed reviews about her hosting duties on Sunday.  Some described her emceeing style as a “breath of fresh air,” while many were critical of her off-the-cuff, often sarcastic remarks which made the beauty contestants (and the judges) more nervous and uneasy than they already were.

But that’s the least of Gonzaga’s concerns.

Today, she lambasted the Binibining Pilipinas Charities (BPC), organizer of the annual pageant, for tricking her to believe that she would be included in the evening gown competition.

“I had to scour the innermost stalls in Divisoria to look for the best evening gown I could find, hoping that I can be at par with the contestants’ designer gowns,” she said.

Gonzaga was visibly very upset when the name of the best in evening gown was announced. It wasn’t her.

After the show, Gonzaga confronted BPC chairwoman Stella Marquez Araneta who explained to her that she may have misunderstood the agreement as co-host. “What I said was that I hope you can wear an evening gown that would stand out amid all the designer dresses that the contestants will be wearing on pageant finals,” Araneta told her.  “I never said that you will be part of the evening gown competition.”

As a compromise, Mrs. Araneta promised to reimburse Gonzaga the full amount that she paid for her blue, flowing, extravagant gown which took quite a lot of space on stage.

The amount wasn’t much, really, since Gonzaga purchased it from Divisoria. And we’re not being sarcastic.