From mountain to sea: Kaya ng Pinoy builds a balangay

MANILA, Philippines - In May 2006 and May 2007, Filipinos literally reached the top of the world when two teams of mountain climbers – three men and three women, respectively – successfully conquered Mount Everest.

The First Philippine Mount Everest Expedition was led by former Undersecretary of Transportation and Communication Art Valdez and composed of climbers Leo Oracion, Pastour Emata and Romi Garduce, and Carina Dayondon, Janet Belarmino and Noelle Wenceslao. The three Filipinas completed the more difficult task of traversing the highest mountain in the world, going up the north route in Tibet and coming down the south face in Nepal.

These amazing feats started as a dream for Valdez who, as president of the Mountaineering Federation of the Philippines, announced in October 2003 that he was forming a team to climb Everest.

Valdez and his hardy team are dreaming again, and this time they aim to conquer the seas of the world in a craft that our ancestors used thousands of years ago.

“The Voyage of the Balangay 2009-2013” aims to construct a replica of the ancient vessel based on the balangay boat excavated in Butuan, Agusan del Sur in the 1970s.

“Thousands of years ago, the ancestors of the Filipino people, the Austronesians, traveled from the Asian mainland by land bridges across the continental shelf to the Southeast Asian archipelago. They then sailed onward to as far East as Polynesia and as far West as Madagascar, aboard the ancient vessel: the balangay,” states a project abstract submitted by the Kaya ng Pinoy Foundation, which will undertake the project.

“The authentic balangay will be crafted by master boat builders from the island of Sibutu and Sitangkay in Tawi-Tawi, whose skills had been handed down through generations. They will be employing the same boat building technique and method of construction as the balangay of the 4th, 13th and 14th century A.D. – plank built, lashed lug, edge pegged and shell-first construction.

“This will not only showcase the capability of the Filipino boat builders but would also be our way of instilling and propagating the idea among the present Filipinos, particularly the youth, that the Filipinos have been world-class boat builders even before the coming of the Western colonizers.”

After the balangay is built, it will embark on a four-year voyage, first around the Philippines, then around Southeast Asia, and on to Micronesia and Madagascar in 2011. The boat will then sail across the Pacific onward to the Atlantic in 2012, all the way around the world and back home to the Philippines in 2013.

“Navigation will also remain accurate to the method that was used by the earliest mariners – steering by the sun, the stars, the wind, cloud formations, wave patterns and bird migrations,” Valdez explained.

The crew will include five Everest mountaineers – Oracion, Emata, Dayondon, Wenceslao and Belarmino – plus medical doctors Ted Esguerra and Voltaire Velasco, and Fred Jamili. Other members of the crew still to be chosen will include master sailors, academics and scientists.

The boat will be built on a 1,000-square meter site provided by the Cultural Center of the Philippines, which is cooperating with the project. The site is located at the Liwasang Ullalim beside the Folk Arts Theater in the CCP Complex on Roxas Blvd. The wood for the boat has already been sourced from Tawi-Tawi and will be shipped to the construction site.

Valdez said that the boat construction site will be “an informative and interactive boat-building showroom.”

“A viewing deck will be constructed so that students and the public will have a chance to actually see the progress of the construction of the boat,“ he added.

Construction is expected to take three months.

“In celebration of the Asian Century, it is time to honor the Filipino pioneering spirit, which we established during our ascent of Mount Everest. This next epic voyage is yet another chance to inspire our countrymen and fellow Indo-Malays to believe in ourselves and in our oneness again,” Valdez said.

“The inspiration for this project comes from the maritime achievements of our ancestors. 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.

“The project will showcase and challenge Filipino ingenuity and native survival skills in this modern age by using natural seafaring technology. It also aims to reorient the psyche of our people, that we are a maritime nation, and not land-based, as our colonizers had led us to believe. Sailing around the country and visiting every major port will rekindle that martime spirit in us.

“The balangay will become the catalyst to stir up historical consciousness among Filipinos today, a sine qua non in transporting our people to our cherished goals.”