MANILA, Philippines — Kirk Bondad, the Philippines’ second Mister International, had a rousing victory presscon at the Holiday Inn Express Manila Newport City in Pasay on September 29.
Kirk’s win follows Kenneth Cabangcal placing fifth at Mister Supranational in Poland on June 28, and Kenneth Marcelino’s first runner-up finish at Mister Cosmopolitan in Thailand on September 7. Jether Palomo is currently campaigning in Bangkok to snatch a back-to-back victory at Mister Global 2025.
The two Kenneths were at Kirk’s homecoming event. However, it was made even more memorable with the presence of “Gwapulis” Neil Perez, who won the Philippines’ first Mister International title in 2014.
One of the first questions on everyone’s mind, though, was Kirk’s reaction to being followed on social media by Latin pop superstar Ricky Martin.
“I know that he started following me a little bit over a year ago and we chatted a little bit. It’s only now that people have been getting notice of that. And honestly, I’m very surprised that the skeleton just popped up out of nowhere,” said the Superman-like Filipino-German supermodel, wellness director and entrepreneur.
“But, yeah, I guess I just started following him back actually. I was in the airport and I realized that I don’t follow him but I checked him out and he’s like super into fitness and all that,” an excited Kirk, 28, said.
“So, who knows maybe one day we will have a workout or something. Yeah, it’s funny. It’s definitely something that I did not expect to get out of this competition,” he added.
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