The CHARM of CVMP (Come Visit My Philippines)

reposted from old blog December 1, 2011

Twenty nine thousand plus members wouldn't seem to be a huge deal when it comes to Facebook pages especially if it includes contest, promos and all sorts of gimmicks just to attract FB users to like their pages. These figures that I mentioned were accumulated not because they have some sort of contest or anything, but simply because of one goal , one mission - to promote tourism in our country, the Philippines
The overwhelming response of Filipinos all over the world have become sort of phenomenal. Never you could imagine that it would reach this huge number of so called ambassadors in just less than three months, and still growing. The pioneer administrators of this Facebook page Come Visit My Philippines are Ms. Bessie Badilla, one of the Most outstanding Filipinos in New York and her friends Mr. Alex Baguio and Mr. Francois Medina. They just thought it would be a great way of promoting the beauty and culture of the Philippines by posting photos of anything and everything related to our beloved country. They never imagined that Filipinos would respond so quickly that in just 24hours of the page's existence their members reached 3,500 and the rest is history.
Good thing they thought of creating a CVMP Coffee Table Book that includes all the winning entries of their weekly categories, to name a few: Church and Cathedral, Flora and Fauna, Seaside/Seascape, Sunrise/Sunset and Christmas in the Philippines category. Instructions for posting include the Title of the photo and group tagline COME VISIT MY PHILIPPINES. The members have the liberty to vote for an entry/entries by clicking the Like button of the corresponding photo. Out of all the entries in each category, the administrators will chose 10 or 20 photos with the most likes and then they will decide what photo entry deserves to win and automatically will have a spot in their coffee table book, which now is currently being published by Apple. Here are some of the photos that caught my interest:



a great photo entry by James Singlador


Divine Mercy Shrine at Misamis Oriental photo entry by Bong Espino



Tinu-ay Falls in Surigao del Sur, photo entry by Loel Lamela

When you become a member of CVMP, you will feel privileged of witnessing how beautiful our country is. You will then realized that the beautiful and amazing locations being shared by fellow members are coming from the Philippines.

Just like this photo of the Tinu-ay Falls above, it's a spectacular view and it's here in our country and yet most of us dreamed of going abroad because they want to experience adventure and witness the beauty of some tourists spots in other countries without having a clue that everything you wished to see is just right here.

CVMP promotes our country not only to foreigners but also to encourage our Kababayans to go back to their homeland and visit the wonderful sites they've seen on this page and placed on their bucket list. They will feel a sense of nostalgia in some ways just by looking at common sights they used to go to or Filipino food they used to eat in their childhood or town fiestas they used to attend to.

I would like to give my high respect to the administrators of Come Visit My Philippines for such a successful gesture of kindness, humility and selfless act of helping our Department of Tourism promote our country globally. Their efforts have been tremendously appreciated by our Kababayans, common people like me, some foreign members because the existence of CVMP had made a great impact in our lives, we were able to communicate with people whom we never met and yet sharing common thoughts, laughs and smiles. We were united even when we're thousands of miles apart. Thank you so much Ms. Bessie Badilla, you really deserved that label of being an Outstanding Filipino,that really shows your love for our country. To Mr. Alex Baguio and Mr. Francois Medina, and new admins Frederick Maniquis, Francis Murphy, Fletcher Callanta, Giboy Sarayba, Melo Martinez, Jay Sta Barbara, Raphael Meija Salonga, Marita Barral, Xaviera Van Polanen Petell, Ronnie Leonardo and Miguel Sarmiento and I'm sorry for those I forgot to mention, we would like to thank you also for the time spent in answering some questions, accomodating new added friends, even if some members are not obeying the rules you still have that patience in you not to go loco over them. Keep it up and if the time comes, which I think will be soon, that CVMP has reached one million members you will still be the same person with great composure and patience.

This coming December 21, 2011, the members of Come Visit My Philippines will be having a FATLAK reunion, as they say, at the Tagaytay Picnic Grove. Some members abroad will be coming home just to join this history-in-the-making event. Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. of the DOT will also be attending and for sure it will be a successful gathering of the minds and hearts of wonderful ambassadors of our country. Mabuhay kayo lahat and good luck on this upcoming event.

Here's a screenshot of the FB page when I finished writing my blog. Awesome figures. Ciao!