When BVI News sought her feedback on Thursday, Hamm said: “That has nothing to do with me. Miss Phillips is entitled to do whatever it is she chooses to. If she has multiple nationalities, that’s on her.”

I’m not into the nitty-gritty

In the meantime, Chair of the Virgin Islands Festival & Fairs Committee, Carnel Clyne who was also invited to comment, said he was not involved in the fine details of pageantry.

He said: “I’ll be honest with you, this is how it works: Festival & Fairs Committee puts on the Miss BVI Show every year. Once that queen is crowned, it is kind of out of our hands. I don’t get involved in the nitty-gritty as to what is going on with the queens after they are crowned.”

“I’m just happy that Miss BVI 2019 is out of the way. We gave them their prizes, and I am just trying to get ready for 2020,” Clyne further said.

He said the committee is already seeking young ladies to contend for the next show.

But while commenting in Phillip’s specific circumstances, Clyne said: “What I think happened in her case — just like the cases of many other BV Islanders and in my case as well — she was maybe born in St Thomas [in the USV] but grew up in Tortola. But, my whole thing is you should be from here if you are going to compete in the Miss BVI pageant. I am pretty sure they submit passports, birth paper with the application.”

Phillips will be one of two contestants contending for the Crown in St Croix’s Island Center on Sunday, October 6. Her vying in that pageant comes just one year after serving as Miss BVI 2018.

If successful in her campaign to become Miss USVI, Phillips will go up against Rikkiya Brathwaite in the international Miss World competition later this year.