The Chocolate Hills rank in the New Seven Wonders slides down to the #5 position from #4 last week. The Tubbataha Reef took over the #4 position while the Subterranean River of Palawan firmly holds the #1 rank. The chance of the Chocolate Hills of becoming a finalist in the N7W seems to be slipping away but a combined effort of all the organizations, companies, schools and government agencies might help. The ranking is based on the online votes on the N7W website and Boholanos who have not yet voted simply need to go to Internet cafes or perhaps voting centers to be put up by the government agencies assigned for the promotions.

Auza.Net is proposing a voting period from Dec 8 to Dec 31, 2008 and the following activities:
November 23 to December 7 (Promotions)
- Media organizations (perhaps led by the Bohol Tri-Media Association) to call on all organizations to schedule with their members on when and where to vote.

December 8 to December 19 (Phase 1 voting)
- All media organizations should intensify print and radio appeals to vote.
- All academic institutions all over Bohol should require their students to vote as part of an assignment or project.
- All Internet Cafes should provide a promo for their clients who vote. For example, free additional 15 minutes for clients who vote.
- All offices, government agencies and NGOs should require their employees to vote and give them time to do so (maybe allow one hour to look for an Internet cafe and vote).
- Government agencies assigned to promote the Chocolate Hills should setup voting centers at the malls for the schools and other organizations that do not have Internet access.

December 20 to Dec 31 (Phase 2 voting)
- All media organizations should continue with the promotions
- Families, school batch organizations and barkadas should schedule a voting period of their own as they do their reunions

Because Auza.Net is only proposing the above activities, it will still be up to the various organizations to do these activities. If your organization wants to help and would need to announce on print and on the Internet, Auza.Net can help. Just send your request at techsier@auza.net. For radio announcements, please contact your favorite radio station to air your announcements.

We believe that the Chocolate Hills still have a chance to be a finalist if it can get a large number of votes. Everyone has to help because we are sure the other contenders are also doing their own promotions to vote. Lastly, because the N7W requires you to vote for seven nominees, we should only vote for the Chocolate Hills among the Philippine’s nominees. The other 6 nominees should come from other countries, maybe from those at the bottom of the list. The N7W is perhaps the biggest opportunity for Bohol to gain significant economic opportunities in the tourism and support industries because of the worldwide marketing that it can get for free when selected as a finalist. All Boholanos should contribute in the effort to make the Chocolate Hills rank as #1.