Culion

Culion is a municipality in the province of Palawan, Philippines, with a population of 23,985 at the 2024 census. It consists mainly of Culion Island and 41 minor surrounding islands in the Calamian group, with a land area of 500 square kilometres. It is bounded on the north by Busuanga Island, on the east by the Coron Reef, on the south by Linapacan Island and on the west by the South China Sea. Culion was a leprosarium from 1906 under American colonial rule: the first 370 patients were brought from Cebu on 27 May 1906. It was declared leprosy-free by the World Health Organization in 2006, and the municipality was created by Republic Act No. 7193 on 19 February 1992. The Philippine National Commission for UNESCO began preparing a dossier of its leprosy documentary heritage in May 2017 for a future Memory of the World nomination.