Miss Universe candidate Michelle Dee shared the reason she is using "Filipinas" in her introduction in the pageant.

In an interview with ABS-CBN News, Michelle relayed that she is somehow familiar already with the Spanish language.

"I'm not fluent in Spanish but I grew up with Spanish heritage. I am a Marquez. So gratefully a lot of our languages, a lot of our words have similarities with the Spanish language so I am able to decode and use context clues to understand," she said.

The beauty queen shared that she studied Spanish after she was chosen as the Philippine representative to the Miss Universe pageant in El Salvador.

"I studied right after I won after Miss Universe Philippines. Of course you need to study the place you're going to, the culture. You don't want to come empty-handed, of course I want to represent the Philippines the best way possible and that includes doing the extra mile, trying to learn the language, trying to be more engaging as well," she said.

READ: Michelle Dee dominates Miss Universe preliminary competition

Michelle shared that when she used the word "Filipinas" in her pageant introduction, a lot of the Latinas commended this gesture.  

"During the rehearsals, when were doing our introductions, actually even before arriving in El Salvador, I knew I wanted to say 'Filipinas' but it was after the first time I said it, a lot the Latinas [said], 'Oh I love that you said Filipinas,'" she stated.

Michelle recently finished the preliminary rounds of the Miss Universe pageant with flying colors.

She showcased her toned physique in the swimsuit competition and walked the pageant's runway gracefully in a Mark Bumgarner cut-out gown filled with 30,000 Swarovski crystals.

Michelle was also announced as one of the top 10 silver finalists for The Voice For Change advocacy video competition in the pageant.

The live broadcast of the Miss Universe 2023 pageant from El Salvador will take place on November 19 at 9 a.m. It will be aired on the Kapamilya Channel, A2Z, Metro Channel, and iWantTFC.