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This Holiday season, there are more things than shopping that is in store for the family in the malls. Be educated and fascinated as the National Geographic Channel, together with Ayala Malls’ “Greenology” program and The Mind Museum presents the Big Blue Exhibit Live at Ayala Malls. Manila is the last stop of the Asian tour of NGC in its campaign to raise awareness and educate the Filipinos about the world’s largest animal.

The exhibit features a state of the art sculpture of a two-month old female blue whale made by professional model-makers in Australia. The said activity also features sessions, conservation and education activities, writing activities and NatGeo’s breakthrough documentary in search for a brand new baby blue in “Big Blue.”

The exhibit would go around Ayala Malls in Metro Manila from November 2009 to February 2010:

• Glorietta 5 from November 17 to 26, 2009
• Trinoma from November 28 to December 11, 2009
• Alabang Town Center from January 4 to 17, 2010
• Market! Market! from January 18 to February 2, 2010
• Greenbelt Mall from February 3 to 17, 2010

Blue whales are the largest animals in the planet – and it can cover a size of two bumper-to-bumper buses, have a heart as big as a compact car and can communicate with other whales more than a thousand miles away…yet we couldn’t hear them. These are fascinating creatures which despite its size, has already dwindled to a couple of a thousand worldwide…threatened to be extinct within the next few decades due to increased human activity and interaction.

So Think Again. Bring the whole family and have a fun-filled yet enlightening Holiday Season at the Ayala Malls, together with the National Geographic Channel.

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"Asia's Titanic" on National Geographic Channel

It was five days before Christmas in 1987 in a calm night in the Philippines MV Doña Paz of Sulpicio Lines set sail from Tacloban in Leyte to Manila. It was another Christmas vacation ferry trip when all of a sudden, it collided with an oil tanker off-coast of Mindoro, creating a fireball and inferno that claimed almost five thousand souls and only twenty four remain. A Christmas to remember…and claimed the title at the Guinness World Record as “The Worst Peace-time Maritime Disaster.” It was indeed Asia’s answer to the infamous Titanic.

The Ill-Fated MV Doña Paz of Sulpicio Lines

This is what the Filipino director Yam Laranas wanted to share to the rest of the world after three years of research and production. Stories about how only a handful from the more than four thousand people, survived and lived to tell the tale and the search for the answers on the disaster which has been etched in Philippine and international maritime history.

The first full-length National Geographic docu-drama that is 100% Filipino made, gave another reason to look back on the issues of our maritime safety of our country…an archipelago republic at the Pacific. Somehow though, the documentary did gave a hanging question though…what were the improvements that were done after this disaster? Seeing some video footage of angry relatives storming Pier 12 of Sulpicio Lines, is very reminiscent of what happened last June 2008 when MV Princess of the Stars (yes, it’s a Sulpicio ship) capsized off Romblon while venturing the rough seas with only a handful survived (again).

The survivors and the relatives of those who died or still missing still cries for justice. Twenty years after, even if Board of Marine Inquiry blamed the oil tanker for the death of the passengers…the question of safety is still hanging.

“Asia’s Titanic” will premiere at National Geographic Channel on 25th of August, Tuesday, 9:00PM (Philippine Standard Time).