Balangay sailing, another pride for the Filipinos
Purely made of wood and indigenous materials from Tawi-tawi and made by the Badjao people, a typical boat of the country called balangay are now sailing around the country and soon to other parts of the world to set another world record.
The balangay manned by 22 crews that include the former Department of Transportation and Communication undersecretary Art Valdez as boat captain, the male and female team of First Mt. Everest Philippine Expedition, the badjao brothers, members of Philippine Navy and Coast Guard, started sailing on September 1, 2009 from Metro Manila. The balangay was constructed at the Cultural Center of the Philippines in the second week of April this year and was finished last June.
Coming from the island of Boracay, the group docked on their 17th port in Iloilo City last Sunday (October 11) and left Iloilo on October 13 for Guimaras and then to Bacolod.
The group expects to finish their route in the country and to go out from it proceeding to Southeast Asia this coming March 2010, Micronesia and Madagascar in 2011, cross Pacific onward to the Atlantic, all the way around the world in 2012 and is expected to be back here in the country in 2013.
Valdez in an interview said their voyage with balangay hopes to reconnect the present situation of the Filipinos with its glorious historical past, “to bring us back to the greatness of our ancestors and how colonialism robbed these away from us and produced the Filipino today to rekindle the maritime consciousness among our people and to install Enrique De Malacca, the Indo-Malay, his rightful place in history as the first circum-navigator of the world.”
Valdez said when he left government in January 2005, he decided to pursue a lifelong dream – that of climbing Mount Everest. More than a thousand people of various nationalities have climbed Mt. Everest, the first two being Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. However, he thought that no Filipino has climbed Mt. Everest – well not until 2006.
In October 2003, he made a public call for Filipinos interested in climbing Mt. Everest. He was then the expedition leader of the all-Filipino Mt. Everest team.
“Due to fund limitations, only an all-male Filipino team (two to be exact) could be supported and successfully scaled Mt. Everest in 2006. Then last year, three Filipinas scaled Mt. Everest. The Filipinas notched two records, namely, the first Southeast Asian females to do so, and the first women in the world to transverse Mt. Everest, i.e., climb up one way and go down another way,” Valdez said.
This he said as he also similarly compared their voyage now to what they have done in Everest climbing wherein even with limited funds but with high spirit they have they were able to conquer the peak of Everest.
“Please note that, while I led these two expeditions, I myself let go of the opportunity to climb Mt. Everest itself. It is a case of the common good being a priority,” he added.
Valdez said that what they have learned in Mt. Everest expeditions such as belief in one’s self and each other, teamwork and unity are necessary and were paramount necessities for them to again complete their voyage.
As a team, Valdez and his group were still keen in pioneering outdoor adventure, specifically adventure with a national significance. While the Philippines is a mountainous country, it is also an archipelago. Thus, it was natural for us to look to our seas.
”This is where the balangay comes in. Our plan is to construct a balangay, the sailboat used by our forefathers to travel across the Southeast Asian islands. The inspiration for this project comes from the maritime achievements of our ancestors,” he noted.
“Sailing along the South China Sea, the Gulf of Thailand and the Java Sea despite the presence of obstacles and dangers, our people considered the seas to be unifying rather than divisive. It is a means of transport and communication,” he added.
From Manila down here in Iloilo, the group had already passes five storms and recently stranded in the island of Boracay.
While they were in Boracay, Vadez said the group made use of their time to make awareness of the people on disaster management. They to conducted seminars and trainings to the people in the place where they will be.
“Aside from the outdoor adventure endeavor, we will use the balangay trips to assist in community-building, particularly for coastal communities. The balangay’s construction was meant for travel hugging the coastline and not for deep waters,” he stressed.
“This then is a plus factor in our community-building efforts. We will travel along the shorelines and stop at communities and key human settlement centers, including cities, to hold seminars. We intend to heighten awareness of global warming. We aspire to challenge our people to help out in watershed management and also in coastal rehabilitation. We also plan to support wholesome coastal tourism and development,” Valdez added.
“In our travels, we will share our self-image and self-assertion that the Filipino can do the impossible. By exhibiting and challenging Filipino ingenuity and native survival skills in this modern age with the use of ancient seafaring technology, we aim to rekindle maritime consciousness among our people which colonialism took away,” he noted.