MARINDUQUE: CENTER OF THE PHILIPPINES

The title is not only based on NAMRIA's pronouncements that in Marinduque lies the geodetic center of the Philippines, the Luzon Datum, known as the mother of all Philippine surveys. Having known Marinduque as the heart of the Philippines, because the island has the shape of a human heart, and knowing that the language spoken here has been identified as the root of a language (Tagalog) from which national forms of speech have sprung (Filipino, the national language is based on Tagalog), no one else could argue the national importance of this island called Marinduque. Its cultural, historical, geographical and touristic significance are here for all to witness and wonder, to whine and whisper about.