Binibining Pilipinas or Miss Philippines is the most prestigious beauty pageant in the Philippines. Winners of this pageant often go on to compete in one of three international beauty pageants. It is the official Philippine franchise holder of the Miss Universe pageant since 1964, Miss International since 1968, and the Miss World pageant since 1992. One of its main organizers is Stella Márquez Zawadski (more commonly known as Stella Márquez de Araneta), a former Miss Colombia who was a Miss Universe semi-finalist and the winner of the first Miss International beauty pageant in 1960.
Binibining Pilipinas has been one of the best pageant organizations in Asia. The organization has produced two Miss Universe winners (Gloria Diaz in 1969 and Maria Margarita Moran in 1973) and three Miss International winners (Aurora Pijuan in 1970, Melanie Marquez in 1979, and Precious Lara Quigaman in 2005). Gemma Cruz, winner of Miss International 1964, is a product of the Miss Philippines pageant, the predecessor of the Binibining Pilipinas pageant. The Philippines has yet to produce a Miss World, but have come rather close: four consecutive Binibining Pilipinas-World (2002 to 2005) became semi - finalists and finalist in the past four years.
From 1952 to 1963, the Miss Philippines pageant was held to select the representative of the Philippines to the Miss Universe Pageant. In 1964, Madame Stella Márquez de Araneta started the Binibining Pilipinas-Universe Pageant after acquiring the local franchise for the Miss Universe Pageant. The grand winner of the Bb. Pilipinas Pageant is awarded the title of Bb. Pilipinas Universe and is the official representative of the Philippines to the Miss Universe Pageant. The current Binibining Pilipinas-Universe titleholder is Anna Theresa Licaros; also Miss Photogenic in the Miss Universe 2007 Pageant.