What’s next for the Puerto Princesa Underground River (PPUR), now that it is officially one of the New7Wonders of Nature? Well, the next step, according to President Benigno Aquino III, is that Filipinos should move from being its promoters to being its responsible stewards. He made this appeal last night during the Official Inauguration of the PPUR in Manila.
“This honor reminds us of how truly blessed our country is — and of how it is our task as Filipinos not to take these blessings for granted. We have to act as responsible stewards,” he said in remarks reported widely in the Philippines media. This means, “valuing our natural resources and ensuring the environmental sustainability of all our development efforts.”
As well, tourism must be “nurtured and sustained,” with the best way to do it being to take care of sites like PPUR “not in words but most importantly in deeds,” quoted GMA News in a story titled “PNoy stresses responsible stewardship of PPUR“, and continued:
“The president lauded the collective success of Filipinos in making the PPUR one of the world’s wonders of nature. “In the face of tremendous competition — when we got to the finalist round, there were 27 other finalists and millions of other voters from all over the world — we pulled together, and once again put the Philippines on the map,” he said. “I thank everyone who participated in this effort — from those who led the campaign, but most especially, to those who joined us in sending their text and Internet votes,” he added.
The Official Inauguration ceremonies continue today at the site of the Puerto Princesa Underground River in Palawan Province.