THE Philippines is pinning its hope on the country’s 13 million cellular-phone users to make the Puerto Princesa Underground River (PPUR) in Palawan one of the world’s New Seven Wonders of Nature via the short-messaging system (SMS) or “text.”

Environment Sec. Ramon J.P. Paje said the Philippines stands a very good chance of making the famous underground river, also known as the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River, one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature and win for the country $1 billion in total prize through text.

The underground river’s national park is l about 50 kilometers north of the city of Puerto Princesa, Palawan. The park is in the Saint Paul Mountain Range on the northern coast of the island.

Cell-phone users of all local networks have until Sept. 25 to vote by texting PPUR, or better yet PPUR7 or PPUR15 to 2861 which indicates the number of votes.  A text-vote costs P2.50.

The Philippines, considered as the world’s texting capital, generates at least 2 billion text.

“By simply spending half our day texting to vote, PPUR or Puerto Princesa Underground River will have an additional vote of 1 billion.  It will become one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature by that alone,” Paje stressed during the media launch of the campaign.

It will be recalled that President Aquino issued Presidential Proclamation 182 declaring a national and international promotion campaign for the PPUR.

The proclamation also created a campaign task force, with the Departments of the Interior and Local Government and Tourism as chairman and vice chairman, respectively, to vigorously promote and push for the proclamation of PPUR as among the New 7 Wonders of Nature.

The search for the New Seven Wonders of Nature was organized by Switzerland-based NewSeven Wonders Foundation in 2007, drawing 440 entries from more than 220 countries. Millions voted for the top 77, which was further narrowed down to 28 finalists for the final phase.  

Paje, along with Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim and Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo appealed to the media to “spread the word” to “texters” and help PPUR win the prestigious title and award with a higher ranking.

Voting for the prestigious competition will culminate on Nov. 11.

According to the Environment chief, as of the latest rankings, the PPUR holds the precarious position of seventh place among the 28 finalists in the competition.

This was attributed to a slowdown in voting for the river, which is considered “one of the jewels” of Palawan, one of the country’s last frontiers for environmental conservation. 

Aside from voting through SMS, voting online, which is allowed only once for each e-mail address, can be done until Nov. 11, 2011 at www.new7wonders.com.