It is just a few hours away from the coronation night of the Miss Universe 2013 beauty pageant.

Fans and followers of Miss Philippines Ariella Arida are hoping that she would be the third Filipina to wear the crown 40 years after Margie Moran became the 2nd Filipina to become Miss Universe in 1973. The first was Gloria Diaz in 1969.

YouTube/Firzt Fernando

While she appears to be a favourite based on media reports and she has won the Ice Princess special title, beauty experts think Ariella would likely be in the Top 5 like the past three Miss Philippines, but the crown could still evade her lovely head.

The Web site Ms Universe Pageant Hotspot predicted the Top 5 would be composed of the candidates from the Philippines, USA, Puerto Rico, Spain and Ukraine.

Explaining which Arida has good chances of making it to the Magic 5, the portal wrote, "Her invitations to special sponsorial events are left and right. She was everywhere. She's very visible in almost all activities," quoted by Pep.ph.

It added the chemistry graduate is controversial, most-talked about, frontrunner, real standout and shone in the preliminary competition and topped "every single battle in Moscow."

However, in what would disappoint Filipinos, the Web site said "it's not yet time for the Philippines to have its third Miss Universe."

"Why" It's because she lacks the appeal of a Miss Universe queen. She's inconsistent."

Likewise, Osvaldo Inbanchi, a beauty contest critic, agreed that Arida will make it to the Top 5, but he stopped there.

Meanwhile, betmakers place Ariella's chance of victory at 9/1 odds, slight lower than Miss India Manasi Moghe who has an 8/1 odds, but Arida has better chances than the candidates from Azerbaijan, Panama and France with 10/1 odds.

Another Web site, Emirates 24/7, sees a déjà vu of 2012 when the top 2 post was a battle between Janine Tugonon of the Philippines and Olivia Culpo of USA, which the latter won. If that were the case, her arch competitor would then be Miss USA Erin Brady.

YouTube/MissUSA

Just about every beauty pageant enthusiast have his or her own forecast such as this one.

YouTube/MorganaQuestera

However, two beauty pageant experts have a bleak prediction for Miss Philippines who they said would not even make it to the Top 16. Misssosology's bets for the crown are either Miss Poland Paulina Krupinska or Miss Spain Patricia Yurena Rodriguez.

Globalbeauties.com has for the Top 5 the beauties from Spain, France, Ukraine, Puerto Rico and Israel.

Of course, Filipinos are hoping they are all wrong and hope that Arida would bring home the crown.

To help improve Ariella's chances of duplicating the feat of Megan Young who won the Miss World 2013 crown in October, Philippine Vice President Jejomar Binay personally appealed for Filipinos support for Arida in this tweet.

Screen capture of VP's tweet