DORAL, Florida (The Adobo Chronicles) – You may not see all 88 contestants in Sunday’s Miss Universe Beauty Pageant finals in Doral, Florida  because almost a third of them — mostly representing countries in Asia, Europe and the Americas have been disqualified.

The reason? They were their countries’ 2015 national title holders.

The 63rd edition of the international pageant in Florida is actually the 2014 Miss Universe, although it is being held in 2015.  The 2014 pageant would have been held in December last year but Miss Universe owner Donald Trump could not decide on a city, country and venue to host the 2014 competition.  The decision finally came later to hold the contest in Florida but January 25, 2015 was the earliest that the venue was available.

Thinking that the Florida pageant was the 2015 competition, many countries sent their 2015 instead of 2014 title holders. Luckily for the Philippines, the 2015 national competition has not yet been held so it sent the correct candidate, Mary Jean Lastimosa, Miss Philippines Universe of 2014.

With lesser competition, will the Philippines finally see its third Miss Universe this year? Or, actually last year, 2014. Yes, we know, it can be quite confusing.