Culion is an island situated at the northernmost part of Palawan. It belongs to the Calamianes Group of Islands. It has a total land area of 415 square kilometers which includes the 41 surrounding islands and measures 1,191.39 square kilometers including its territorial water. It is bounded on the north by Busuanga Island, on the east by the Coron Reef, on the south by Linapacan Island, and on the west by the South China Sea. Three ecosystems sustain the rich marine life of Culion: mangroves, seagrass, and corals. 17 mangrove species cover the coastline of Culion. 9 seagrass species and 47 coral genera representing 60% of the total genera found in the Philippines are found in Culion. It used to have high density forests with hardwood or “iron trees” like narra, mahogany, molave, kayataw, wasi and ipil.
On June 22, 1988, Congress passed R.A. No. 6659 that authorized qualified residents of Culion Leper Colony to vote for the elective provincial officials of the Province of Palawan. In 1991, Speaker Ramon Mitra and House Representative David Ponce De Leon introduced a house bill for the creation of the Municipality of Culion. On February 12,1992, President Corazon C. Aquino signed Republic Act 7193 creating the Municipality of Culion in the Province of Palawan.
The sudden conversion of Culion into a municipality brings with it problems both internal and external. These are all interconnected with integrity of sustaining each others continues existence. But somehow people began to realize the shift in power and authority from the sanitarium to the municipality. An aftershock of shifting sand or governance.
It’ll give Culion disservice if we will not mention the beautiful Indigenous People or the ‘Calamian Tagbanua’ the original residence of the place, as old as the Philippine history. We simply need a kind of respect to the sacredness of our roots, not only Culion but most of all our motherland itself before the influx of migrants bringing their customs, habits, regional characteristics and even dialects that made the place uniquely heterogeneous population. Not to mention the gaining numbers of its residence.
Through these complex series of events within and without, the past and the present, we can also recount the facts like Divine message of a truly unique gift, chronicled not only in our country but for the whole world that we would like to expressed this great joy of ‘healing’ which lots of people ought to know and must learn against the prejudices and misunderstanding if not ignorance of this so called stigma.. This is the message of the manifestation of dignity.
Today when you hear the word Culion it’ll simply whisper to you a meaningful logo against the backdrop of its past displayed now in our museum. But that scary isolation is now a cool word like “cool-yon” that offers a meaningful journey complimenting with adventure or something you’ll remember the rest of your life. I remember some friends telling me about their tour in many places, they said go first to the rest of the world and make your last tour in this place and you’ll forget all those places that you've seen, but of course that’s an exaggeration until you encounter the place itself. It's some kind of retreat and communion that can lead you to a garden of wisdom... ;) Many travelers have been in awe of the tranquility of this place because the experienced is not just about the views but most of all the compassionate kindness that one senses of harmony and peace that in the end you'll will find out that this peace is all about right relationship with ecology and awareness of the environment in likeness to the call of natural world. The very reason of Culion's ecological realization that reaches out into something like a spiritual journey...
Like Divine message of a truly unique gift, chronicled not only in our country but for the whole world that we would like to expressed this great joy of ‘healing’ which lots of people ought to know and must learn against the prejudices and misunderstanding if not ignorance of this so called stigma.. This is the message of the manifestation of dignity.
So from here we can now travel around Culion sphere and rediscover the whole new world called the land of a meaningful journey.
My
love for this place simply echoes its message that's embedded in every
pixels of all these images, just like the trillion trillions of stars in
the universe and the innate or universal language that even alien world
utters on this magic word beautifully;
i love you i love you i love you
i love you i love you i love you
i love you i love you i love you i love you :))
till eternity :))
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