Leyte all agog over PPUR's being one of provisional New 7 Wonders of Nature

TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte, November 12 (PIA) -– Leyte is all agog over the fact that Puerto Princesa Underground River's being one of the provisional New 7 Wonders of Nature.
This topic was subject of text messages, tweets, and several public affairs and block time programs in radio stations in Leyte on Saturday morning, which showed that Leytenos really took the PPUR goal to heart as their personal quest.
After the final voting at 7 in the evening of November 11, the Puerto Princesa Underground River is now among the provisional New7Wonders of Nature.
The result was posted in alphabetical order, “not in any position or ranking” at the website of the New7Wonders Foundation. The post stated that “It is possible that there will be changes between the above provisional winners and the eventual finally confirmed winners.”
The voting calculation is now being checked, validated and independently verified, and the confirmed winners will be announced starting early 2012 during the Official Inauguration ceremonies.
The local media discussed that a day before the voting ended yesterday night, the Philippine government mounted a "last ditch" effort through the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) by ordering all local government officials from governors down to barangay captains to urge Filipinos around the country to cast their vote for the underground river.
The local media also mentioned that PCOO, PIA and other government media also took a last hype inviting Puerto Princesa Mayor Edward Hagedorn as the guest at the CNEX program where the Mayor disclosed that the domestic flights to Puerto Princesa increased from 3 to 12 due to the increasing number of visitors going to the city and he expect more visitors if the PPUR will win as one of the new Seven Wonders of Nature.
Mayor Hagedorn disclosed that Puerto Princesa earned about P700 million from tourism since PPUR was considered in the search for the Seven Wonders of Nature. If PPUR wins, the city expects to earn P2 billion or more.
The other six New 7 Wonders of Nature, based on provisional results, were South America's Amazon River, Vietnman's Halong Bay, Argentina's Iguazu Fallas, South Korea's Jeju Island, Indonesia's Komodo Island and South Africa's Table Mountain.
The foundation said that more than a million cast their vote since the start of the search. From 440 contenders, the list was trimmed to 220 and then to a shortlist of 77.
From 77, the number of contenders was trimmed further down to 28 and finally the seven provisional winners. The votes were cast through text, internet and by telephone. (PIA 8)