Puerto Princesa Underground Park and the Coral Triangle will represent the Philippines to the world

Zurich/Switzerland, Jan. 7, 2009—The result of the first phase of voting in the Official New7Wonders of Nature campaign were an-nounced today at the New7Wonder Foundation headquarters. For the Philippines, Puerto Princesa Underground Park (winner of the national qualifiers) and the Coral Triangle (multinational participant shared by the Phil-ippines), have qualified under the rules of participation. These magnificent natural sites are amongst the 261nominees now one step closer to potentially being chosen one of the Official New7Wonders of Nature by the peo-ple of the world. Of the original 441 nominees, 180, or more than 40%, were eliminated as the next stage begins.

Tia Viering, Head of Communications for New7Wonders, says “We congratulate the successful qualifying locations from the Phil-ippines and wish them the best of luck in the second phase of voting. We also at this time highlight the strong and enthusiastic particip-ation of the other national nominees that are not proceeding—many have already benefited from a significant increase in worldwide aware-ness, which in itself is a recognized important benefit for all involved in the New7Wonders campaigns.”

Voting in the second phase continues until July 7, 2009, to select the Top 77 - the pool from which the 21 Official Finalists are chosen. The qualified 261 national and multinational nominees from the 222 participating countries feature iconic locations such as the Grand Canyon, Loch Ness, the Black Forest, and Mount Fuji, alongside the Amazon, the Danube, the Dead Sea, the Great Barrier Reef, Iguazu Falls, the Kalahari Desert, Mont Blanc, and Niagara Falls. As in the original successful campaign that chose the Official New 7 Wonders of the World thanks to more than 100 million votes, the N7W Panel of Experts will select the 21 Finalists from the top 77 -these will be announced on July 21. At that time the third and final phase of voting will begin, and the people of the world will then have approximately 2 years to vote amongst the 21 Finalists for the Official New7Wonders of Nature, to be revealed in 2011. Over 1 billion votes are forecast.

Vote now at www.new7wonders.com

The Filipino national nominees that did not qualify through from the first phase are: Tubbataha Reef, Chocolate Hills, Mayon Volcano, Hundred Islands National Park, Mount Pinatubo, Taal Volcano