Edition #65 of beauty pageant Miss Universe will take place at the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila, Philippines today.

86 candidates are competing to become the new Miss Universe, replacing current beauty queen Pía Alonzo.

Judges of this year’s competition are: Cynthia Bailey (model and reality TV star), Dayanara Torres (Miss Universe 1993), Francine Lefrak (social entrepreneur and producer), Mickey Boardman (fashion magazine editor) and Sushmita Sen (Miss Universe 1994); while Steve Harvey will be in charge of hosting the show for a second consecutive year despite last year’s embarrassing mistake when he announced the winner as being Miss Colombia and had to correct the situation minutes later to confirm the actual winner was Miss Philippines, Pia Alonzo.

The representative of Costa Rica this year is Carolina Rodriguez, a 27-year old English teacher.

Rodriguez raised some negativity in the recent weeks after she posed with Miss Nicaragua Marina Jacoby, with her arm straight in front of her and her hand forming a fist, a similar gesture to that of Philippine’s president Rodrigo Duterte known by the citizens of the country as “the iron fist” and who is a very controversial figure because of his constant violation of human rights in his fight against drug trafficking.

The national costume Carolina Rodriguez will be wearing for this segment of the pageant is made out of recycled beer cans , designed by students of the Universidad Creativa Veronica Morales and Ingrid Alvarado. The cans are shaped like flowers (see photo in gallery), and as explained by the students it was inspired in the bird of paradise flower.

If you are in Costa Rica and want to watch the Miss Universe event, tune in to TNT channel 30 in Cable Tica at 6pm local time.