Palawan’s Underground Beauty of Nature

The Province of Palawan is blessed with so many beautiful, panoramic and breath-taking islands and islets.  Once there, it’s up to you to decide whether to stay in the city, go to beaches or head out and see for yourself what well-known tourist destinations you will try and visit.

Lately, Palawan is at the center of the world’s attention when one of its well-known tourist destinations was voted as one of the choices among the 28 tourist sites to be inducted as the newest 7 Wonders of Nature.  This well known destination is the Puerto Princesa Underground River.  But what is it about the site that made it stood out from among the rest of the choices.

Actually, the underground river was first named as St’ Paul’s Cave but was later renamed as St. Paul’s Underground River National Park by the locals. The City Government had been managing the National Park since 1992 with the help of the locals. On the 26^th of March 1971, it was officially named as Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park under Proclamation No. 835. 

The Palawan Underground River was tagged as the world’s longest passable underground river.  It is located in a town called Bahile, an 8.1 kilometer travel away from Puerto Princesa’s city proper. It is situated under a cliff and is more than eight kilometers long but, only four kilometers out of its entire length can be surveyed by a banca (handmade boat) that is being navigated by a guide. The banca is equipped with a handmade kerosene torch that serves as their light. Once inside the cave, one can see different formations of stalactites and stalagmites that resemble fruits, birds and even religious images. 

Lately, a team of Italian scientists discovered fossils from a Sirenia, better known as Sea cow or Dugong in the native language. It was believed to have been more or less twenty (20) million years old.  Ribs and parts of its spine were plastered in the rocks on the ceiling of the cave.  The scientists do not want to extract it and they don’t want to remove it either.  They just want to study it using their technologies without making any damage to the said fossils. Scientists said that these fossils might be older to those exhibited in the United States.

Several months ago, the New7Wonders movement founded by Bernard Weber had a worldwide campaign which was to elect seven (7) wonders of the world.  There were actually 28 places that made the cut. Most of them came from America, United Kingdom, and a few from Asia and luckily, The Puerto Princesa Underground River from the Philippines was nominated as one of the finalists. 

How did the Puerto Princesa Underground River manage to be one of the finalists? One reason why it was voted as one of the finalists was its untouched nature.  Though locals and foreigners had been visiting the place, the local government worked hard to see to it that it is well-maintained, unpolluted, unharmed and undisturbed. The great effort from the local government together with the endorsement of the local media and its personalities, and the help of social networks like Facebook and twitter, campaigns were made to gain votes for Puerto Princesa Underground River to make it to the top seven and be named as one of the Seven Wonders of Nature.  The effort they have exerted won them the prize they are longing for when on the 11^th of November 2011, the Underground River of Palawan was acknowledged as one of the newly proclaimed Seven (7) Wonders of the Nature which is currently at the 6^th place in the preliminary counting.