MANILA, Philippines?(UPDATE) Binibining Pilipinas-Universe Maria Venus Raj yet to get her Philippine passport, after all.

The Department of Foreign Affairs Office of Consular Affairs corrected its earlier statement that Raj, 21, was finally issued a Philippine passport Thursday.

?Pardon the premature announcement?the DFA Office of Consular Affairs will issue a Philippine passport to Ms Maria Venus B. Raj after an evaluation committee recommended its issuance,? it said.

?The passport will be issued in the next few days,? the DFA said.

?The committee stated that on the basis of documents presented by Ms Maria Venus, it is well-established that she was born to a Filipina mother, and following the jus sanguinis rule on matters of citizenship acquisition, she is a Filipino citizen who is entitled to a Philippine passport,? said the DFA.

The consular affairs office earlier said that Raj finally got her passport Thursday ?after an evaluation committee recommended its issuance.?

The 5? 9? stunner was crowned Binibining Pilipinas-Universe on March 6 but was stripped of her title 23 days later after the foundation that runs the annual beauty pageant discovered she had been born in Qatar to an Indian man who was not married to her Filipina mother.

Raj?s birth certificate stated she was born in the Philippines to married Filipinos.

Amid a nationwide furor, the Binibinang Pilipinas committee reinstated her on a condition she would get a Philippine passport to establish her nationality.

The DFA said an evaluation committee recommended the issuance of passport to Raj, a journalism graduate from Camarines Sur. With AFP