as miss universe philippines 2019, ganados represented the philippines in the miss universe 2019 competition on 8 december 2019 at the tyler perry studios in atlanta, georgia, the united states. during the final competition, ganados talked about her advocacy focused on elderly care in her opening statement, after she entered as one of the 5 wildcards to complete the top 20, marking the second time the philippines had entered the miss universe semifinals as a wildcard contestant since rachel peters' top 10 placement in 2017. her top 20 finish broke the ongoing streak of the philippines' appearance in the top 10 for 9 consecutive years, but successfully sustained its ongoing streak of yearly semifinal appearances at miss universe since 2010, making it the first participating country to qualify to the live miss universe finale for at least a full decade in the 21st century. ganados won the national costume competition with her philippine eagle-inspired ensemble, becoming the second filipina to win the award after charlene gonzales in 1994.