Just a week after the presentation of the official Miss Universe Philippines 2025 pageant, frontrunner Yllana Marie Aduana is being accused of fakery after an old video of her speech distinguishing herself as a scientist resurfaced on social media.

Aduana, the representative of Siniloan, Laguna, was a pageant veteran who used to represent the country at the Miss Earth pageant in 2023, where she would later become one of the finalists as Miss Earth-Air.

In many instances Aduana would introduce herself as a licensed medical laboratory scientist, including in 2023 when she participated in a United Nations climate change event in New York where she introduced herself as a “beauty queen and also a scientist.”

The beauty queen’s eloquence was well received not just by the foreign delegates in New York but also her fellow Filipinos back home.

Fast forward to 2025 and Aduana is now competing for the chance to represent the country anew in the international stage, this time the Miss Universe pageant.

But critics are seemingly having a beef with her liberal use of the word “scientist,” while an online content creator said the beauty queen may be accused of “fakery” by “elevating” herself  as a scientist when she holds a license as a medical technologist — a claim that sent pageant observers into social media overdrive.

While the term “medical technologist” is more commonly used by Filipinos, Western societies refer to them as “medical laboratory scientists,” in the same way that “medical doctors” are also called “physicians.”

An entry from the official website of Mayo Clinic’s College of Medicine and Science in the United States said, “[a] medical laboratory scientist (MLS), also known as a medical technologist or clinical laboratory scientist, works to analyze a variety of biological specimens.”

And whether or not her license shows “medical technologist,” it does not matter, because the job requires her to strictly observe the scientific method.

“Medical laboratory scientists perform complex tests on patient samples using sophisticated equipment like microscopes. The data they find plays an important role in identifying and treating cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and medical conditions,” it continued.

For many of Aduana’s supporters, the attacks reek of “smart shaming.” This was not the first time that the beauty queen has been subjected to such, being on the receiving end of criticisms about her expansive vocabulary, and the glossary of terms that she uses when she speaks.

Aduana is hoping to inherit the MUPH title from Chelsea Manalo and raise the country’s flag in the 74th Miss Universe pageant in Thailand in November.

Her first national pageant was the 2021 Miss Philippines Earth competition conducted virtually, and where she finished as a runner-up. In the same year, she joined the Miss FIT (Face, Intelligence, Tone) Philippines contest and won the crown.

In 2022, she competed in the Binibining Pilipinas pageant, where she advanced to the Top 12, and also received the “Face of Binibini” award. A year later, she returned to the Miss Philippines Earth pageant and took home the title.