Palawan underground river still in the race

Last of RP wonders.
The Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park, one of the Philippines top natural attraction and recognized as a World Hiretage Site by the United Nations, has entered the second round of an ongoing global search for the seven new wonders of the world.
Palawan's 8.2 kilometers underground river set on a huge primeval karst formation in the NorthWestern coast of Puerto Princesa City bested six other local natural attractions in the Country's last year's polling.
The Coral Triangle, a region that the Philippines shares with five other countries and representing the majority of the world's corals and marine-based species made the cut of 226 sites from among the original 441 entries in last year's Internet-base voting campaign.
The qualified national and multinational nominies from 222 countries feature iconic locations, such as the Grand Canyon in Colorado, Loch Ness in Scotland, the Black Forest in Germany, and Mount Fuji in Japan, alongside the Amazon, the Danube, the Dead Sea, the Great Barrier reef, Iguazu Falls, the Klahari Desert, Mont Blanc and Niagara Falls.
New7Wonders, a private foundation based in Zurich, Switzerland, which is spearheading the search. The foundation was establish by a Swiss-born Canadian filmmaker in 2001, Bernard Weber an adventurer to contribute to the protection of the world's human-built and natural heritage and to foster respect for the cultural diversity on our planet.
Among the country's tourist attraction's failing to hurdle the first round was erstwhile voting leader Tubataha Reefs, also located in Palawan, Chocolate Hills in Bohol, Mayon Volcano in Albay, the Hundred Islands in Pangasinan, Mount Pinatubo in Zambales and Taal Volcano in Batangas.

Of the original nominees worldwide, 180 or 40% were eliminated. The finalist of the world's seven new wonders will be choosen through internet-base voting and an international panel of experts in two years.
On July 21, the third and final phase of voting will begin. The voters will have approximately two years to vote among the 21 finalists for the official New7wonders of the world to be revealed in 2011.

The Coral Triangle features an abundance of coral reefs straddling the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste.
Covering more than 8.5 million square kilometers with over 600 reef-building coral species that encompass 75 percent of all species known in the world, the region is regarded by environmental conservationists as top priority for conservation of marine life. More than 3,000 species of fish live in the Coral Triangle, including the largest fish  the whale shark  and the living fossil coelacanths, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

Among the neighboring country's, the selected entries include Cambodia's Yak Loum Lake, Vietnam's Ha Long Bay, Laos' Nam Ha National Park, Singapore's Bukit Tima Nature Reserve, Brunei's Tasek Merimbun,  Malaysia's Sipadan Island, Thailand's Ko Phi Island, Jaco Island in East Timor, the Mergui Archipelago of Burma (Myanmar) and the Mekong River, shared by China and Mainland Southeast Asian Nations.