NEGRENSE adventurer Arturo Valdez has brought home for the fourth time his three special cultural sailboats called “Balangay.”
The sailboats named Sama Tawi-Tawi, Lahi ng Maharlika and Sultan of Sulu docked at the Bredco Port in Bacolod City Friday afternoon, March 2, following their voyage from Manila to Zamboanga, Boracay, Lakawon in Cadiz.
Valdez, a former undersecretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, continues to engage in a voyage done through manual sail with the help of the wind that power up their vessels.
Valdez started this “Balangay” voyage after the success of his expedition team in climbing Mt. Everest, the world’s highest mountain peak.
Valdez said: “This is us. We want to experience what our ancestors have experienced in the past when they traveled at sea. We sailed from Manila last Monday and we were entering Verde Island Passage, passing the body of water between Mindoro and Batangas. The waves were very huge and our boats could hardly proceed. But we continued early morning of Tuesday and proceeded to Boracay and stayed there for 12 hours. And then sailed again in the evening because we want to get to Zamboanga at the soonest time possible where we can repair our boats.”
They planned to go back to Manila by the third week of March and hopefully sail to China by the first week of April, he said.
“The China trip was postponed because of the bad weather condition. We tried it last May 2017, but the weather did not permit us to proceed,” he said.
Valdez said the voyage was meant to highlight that the Philippines is an archipelago and a maritime nation.
“We are so endowed with so many maritime resources. The Philippines is the center of the coral triangle, the richest area in terms of biodiversity. The country is also the center of marine biodiversity,” he said.
Voyage to China
Valdez and his team will sail to Guangzhou City in southern China, the first port where Sultan Paduka Batara of Sulu and his men docked into 600 years ago.
“We want to share to our people that the real wealth of our people really lies in maritime. But the colonialist power like America and Spain discouraged our people to be in the water. They made us think that we are land-based people. We have been detached from our natural environment,” he said.
He said colonialism really divided Southeast Asia, adding that “Balangay” freely roamed these waters before.
Valdez said he wants to finish this voyage with the main purpose of sending a message that “our wealth lies in maritime.”