Gessa Marie T. Gunhuran
STC Media Intern

FOR most of the young people, sports may just be a pastime or for leisure, but for a group of mountaineers who have been climbing and trekking various peaks around the globe it could be a powerful tool to convey a patriotic message, especially to the youth.

For the First Philippine Mount Everest Expedition team, sports isn’t just mere play and leisure, it is an educational tool for the youth.

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Headed by Arturo T. Valdez, a veteran mountaineer and marathoner, the team is composed of nine members who conquered Mt. Everest last 2006.

The successful ascent to the Everest summit was done by two Filipino teams: the male team led by Leo Oracion and Erwin “Pastour” Emata and the all-female team of Janet Belarmino-Sardena, Carina Dayondon and Noelle Wenceslao.

“We want our Mt. Everest experience to be an example where we could inculcate deep sense of patriotism and love of country, stirring up consciousness to the young,” Valdez said.

As most youngsters are lost in day-to-day routine, it seems that migrating to other countries is the only answer to the poor quality of life.

To address this, Valdez’s team offers an alternative way by utilizing sports, seeing that it is a stable foundation to convey a powerful message, as this could also be a credible and effective way of reaching out to the youth.

“Through it, we could get back what colonialism has taken from us, making us forget our roots”, added Valdez.

Mountaineering, as a sport, is not that easy especially when traversing Mount Everest. The First Philippine Mount Everest Expedition team showed no sign of quitting as they had sacrificed so much for their goal.

Philippine flag

Valdez said, “We have showed the people that the Filipinos could accomplish so much. We never considered giving up, but only thought of bringing the Philippine flag to the top”.

However, forming the team was the most difficult part of the entire Everest expedition. At first, nobody would take the idea of Filipinos going up to Mount Everest. People would not believe that they could do the impossible.

Being the former head of the Mountaineering Federation of the Philippines, Valdez organized the team with highly competitive individuals coming from different places around the country. The challenge was how to convince the members to work together to reach a common goal and to do this for the country.

The support of their family served as the fuel that drove them to conquer the summit amidst the intense coldness. After reaching the top, Valdez believed that the only thing that they have gained is determination to do more for the country.

The accomplishment didn’t stop the team from venturing to a higher and more challenging attempt to teach the youth another way of showing patriotism.

After their triumphant climb to the world’s highest peak, the team continues to reach out to the Philippine youth.

Together with “Kaya ng Pinoy Inc.”, they launched a fresh and innovative undertaking that retraces the migration of our ancestors across the oceans using only the native balangay.

The balangay, an ancient vessel, was first used by the ancestors of the Filipino people, the Austronesian speaking people, to travel from Asian mainland to the South East Asian archipelago. This finely-built boat, made without the use of blueprints but was taught from one generation to another, is found only in the Philippines.

It was also the first wooden watercraft excavated in Southeast Asia.

The First Philippine Mount Everest Expedition team, together with five crewmembers, uses the Balangay to travel through the Philippine archipelago and showcase one of the wonders of our culture that seems to have been forgotten by many.

Seeing that the people nowadays need a reorganization of values, the team wants to instill a sense of patriotism by taking up this new kind of endeavor.

With the idea of sports as a stable foundation to educate the young ones, the motivated mountaineers believe that the nation needs a soul and a spirit. One way of achieving this is to stir up the youth’s consciousness to fully grasp the idea of patriotism and love of country.

Propelled by a sail made of nipa fiber or padding, the Balangay voyage has already taken the team to the different provinces in Luzon.

After visiting Lapu-lapu City in Mactan, they dropped by Argao, Cebu—navigating only by using the sun and stars, the wind, cloud formations, wave patterns and bird migrations--a method that was used even by the earliest mariners.