Culion Island

Culion, officially the Municipality of Culion (Tagalog: Bayan ng Culion), is a municipality in the province of Palawan, Philippines. According to the 2024 census, it has a population of 23,985 people. Culion consists primarily of Culion Island as well as 41 minor surrounding islands, as part of the Calamian group of islands. It was a former leprosarium, starting in 1906 under the American colonial regime until the American commonwealth of the Philippines era. Although leprosy on the island-town was abolished in the 1980s, it was only in 2006 when it was declared a leprosy-free area by the World Health Organization. The municipality was created by virtue of Republic Act No. 7193 on February 19, 1992. In May 2017, the Philippine National Commission for UNESCO began its initiative to prepare the dossier of Culion's leprosy documentary heritage, which will be nominated in the future in the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme. In May 2018, the Culion Museum and Archives was officially nominated by the Philippines in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register – Asia and the Pacific. On June 18, 2018, Culion Leprosy Archives was officially inscribed in the Memory of the World Register – Asia and the Pacific. The government and the Asia-Pacific bloc aims to nominate the archives further to the International Memory of the World Register. If approved by UNESCO, it will be the fifth internationally recognized documentary heritage of the Philippines, increasing Culion town's feasibility to become a World Heritage Site in the future.

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