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The
organizing committee of the New 7 Wonders (N7W) of Nature
campaign will be reinstating the world renowned Chocolate
Hills in its official list of nominees anytime today.
Better
yet, the search organizers have also assured that the
votes gathered by Chocolate Hills in the online polls
before it was delisted as a nominee will also be restored.
This
information was relayed to the Chronicle yesterday by
Dr. Oscar Galang, the organizer of the Chocolate Hills
support committee in the United States. He was interviewed
over dyRD's top-rated "Inyong Alagad" yesterday.
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NATURE'S BEAUTY AND MYSTERY. The world-renowned
Chocolate Hills spread over the towns of Carmen, Butuan
and Sagbayan is Bohol's signature tourist attraction.
Cited as a geological monument, the near perfect cone
shaped hills landed in the top 10 of the search for
the New 7 Wonders of Nature but was de-listed from the
nominees since Monday. |
Galang,
who had been in touch with the New 7 Wonders Foundation, said
that Nadja Rahal, head of the search registration committee,
made the assurance that the Bohol hills will be listed again
in official nominees.
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This
after nomination documents, official support committee
(OSC) endorsement and an agreement-contract signed by
Carmen town Mayor Manuel Molina were already submitted
to the N7W Foundation headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
The
delisting of Chocolate Hills last week was due to the
non-compliance of the said documents required by the
foundation.
Before
it was dislodged from the official list of nominees
and the online rankings, Chocolate Hills occupied the
6th place of the live rankings at the N7W website.
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"I
talked with Molina yesterday, then called up Rahal who confirmed
that the documents are already received," Galang said.
According
to Galang, Chocolate Hills was previously nominated to the
N7W but no group officially stood up as the official support
committee (OSC).
"The
nomination and OSC must come from officials of the locality
where the natural site is located," Galang said.
Galang
was informed by Rahal that they will restore the votes already
credited to Chocolate Hills before its delisting.
"The
organizers said that 20 million votes is not even enough for
a particular nominated site to be included in the top 7,"
he added.
"This
is a very huge endeavour and we thank the organizers if indeed
they will restore the votes for Chocolate Hills," Galang
said, "considering that we are already behind in votes
due to the delisting during the past week."
In
a gathering of Boholanos in Southern California last Sunday,
Galang was invited to speak and explain the reason behind
the delisting.
"Much
as they were concerned of the status of Chocolate Hills, I
urged them to continue campaigning with other Filipino communities
in the US," he said.
According
to Galang, Philippine Consul General in Los Angeles California
Mary Jo Bernardo Aragon and the Director for Tourism Agnes
Cuevas, who were present during the Boholano gathering, also
gave assurance to support the Boholano campaign.
Galang
also established a website for the purpose of the Chocolate
Hills campaign in the US. The website, www.chocolatehills.us
can be accessed with links to the N7W website where voting
is done.
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