May we respectfully request our Honorable Senators to approve House Bill No. 4953 “AN ACT DECLARING THE BALANGAY AS THE NATIONAL BOAT OF THE PHILIPPINES”. This bill has been pending in the Senate, still to be calendared for plenary deliberations. Please act on the bill's passage and expedite the law's enactment in the soonest possible time.

Let us recognize the historical and cultural significance of the BALANGAY and honor the ideals, values and traditions that the BALANGAY embodies. The BALANGAY should be given its rightful place not only in museums but most importantly, in the hearts and minds of every Filipino.  As our country's NATIONAL BOAT, the BALANGAY will become an official symbol of community, courage, ingenuity and resilience that every Filipino can identify with.

THE WORD "BALANGAY"
The word “balangay”, with modification to “barangay” in some places, had been commonly used for centuries before the arrival of the Spanish colonizers in the southern, central and northern islands and communities of the Philippines to refer to a neighborhood or village no doubt derived from the “balangay” boat where as floating houses the families of our ancestors lived together and worked alongside the “balangay” boat houses of their relatives, friends and neighbors. “Balangay” cannot be considered simply as a local or regional phenomenon. “Balangay” had in effect become a NATIONAL institution across islands and tribes all over the country long before “PHILIPPINES” or “PILIPINAS” entered the consciousness of our islanders in our part of the world.  

BALANGAY - VERSION OF AUSTRONESIAN BOAT UNIQUE TO OUR ISLANDS
In wave upon wave of migrations, the Austronesian people bound by common language and equipped with well-developed boat-sailing skills moved around the waters of Asia and as far as Africa and Polynesia to seek better lives for their families and tribes. Necessity forced them to develop maritime technologies that enabled them to cross oceans that later became regular trade routes.  Large wooden boats were built using a common design whose applications got adjusted to suit particular uses depending on available materials. The “balangay” served the purposes of loading families and carrying cargoes in deep seas and shallow rivers, yet capable of being navigated during sailing and being lifted during dry-docking by the least number of crew members. Basically an Austronesian boat but uniquely Filipino.

THE BALANGAY - THE OLDEST SEACRAFT FOUND IN THE PHILIPPINES
“The discovery of the balangay boats in the Butuan area of Northern Mindanao was arguably the most important find in pre-colonial maritime archaeology throughout the islands of South East Asia. This class of vessel was well known from the accounts of early Spanish visitors to the Philippines, such as the Pigafetta journal of Magellan’s voyage, but no extant examples had been located until the 1970s.” “The same type of boats and construction has been recovered in Sumatra and Pontian in Malaysia, apparently of the same period. There is no other known site in the Southeast Asian region that have archaeological recoveries of a concentration of large, open-water going boats, as that found in Butuan. The fact that the boats are of Neolithic marine architecture is very unique, and which date between the 10th and 13th century AD. Only one other boat has been found in Southeast Asia, specifically in Pontian, Malaysia, where a similar boat was recovered.”

BALANGAY WRECKAGES FOUND IN LUZON, VISAYAS AND MINDANAO
The balangays found in Butuan get referred to as “Butuan Boats” simply because these boat remnants were dug up in Butuan. Actually, balangay wreckages have been discovered in provinces spread out all over our archipelago, as follows: off Gujangan Island, Sulu province; in the waters of San Isidro, Zambales; exposed by erosion in Caoayan, Ilocos Sur; two other underwater sites in Mindoro and Marinduque; three underwater wrecks in Philippine waters, namely: Pandanan wreck and the Lena Shoal Wreck from Palawan, and the Santa Cruz wreck from Zambales. With focus and funding, the National Museum’s archaeological efforts will eventually lead to successes in preserving and exhibiting the balangay wreckages that will be called “Sulu Boat”, “Ilocos Sur Boat”, “Mindoro Boat”, “Marinduque Boat”, ““Zambales Boats”, and  “Palawan Boats”.  The Balangay, indeed, is the Philippines’ National Boat.

BALANGAY - GENERIC NAME FOR NATIVE BOATS BUILT UNDER THE SAME TECHNOLOGY
Balangay has become a generic term for wooden boats built with edge joined planks and lashed lugs in line with traditional technology passed by master boat-builders from one generation to the next during these past thousands of years. These versions of balangays bear different names such as pidlas, lepa, kumpit, lapid, beray or viray, tataya, falowa, karakoa (balangay warship), etc. Dug-out boats made from hallowed tree trunks do not qualify as balangays. Wooden plank-hulled boats made in the Philippines belong to the Balangay category.

BALANGAY - ROOT WORD FOR BARANGAY AS USED IN LUZON
Charlie A. Agatep, a native of Cagayan Province and Cles Rambaud, editor of Bannawag Magazine in Northern Luzon, state that “Barangay is our Ilokano term for the Tagalog balangay. This was the kind of boat the Ilokanos used to traverse the sea going as far as Buguey, Cagayan during the Ilokano migration to the Cagayan Valley. In the far northern shores of Cagayan and outlying islands, people used to call the anchorage or dock sites of barangays as “balangayan”, oddly with the Tagalog “l” in “balangay” and not with the Ilokano “r” in “barangay”. However, there is not a single Ilokano word for a group of barangays not unlike when we refer to a group of houses as “purok”. We may call, in Ilokano, a group of barangays as “pangen dagiti barangay”. It’s like a “fleet of ships” or “naval flotilla”. Over the centuries, the word “barangay” for boat has been given new names in Northern Luzon, particularly in far off Batanes Islands, depending on construction and use of the watercraft.” The pre-colonial Ilokano epic "Biag Ni Lam-ang" narrated the visit of the hero Lam-ang to his lady love using two golden barangays. 

BALANGAY BOAT WORD USED TO MEAN VILLAGE IN THE VISAYAS 
 In a Spanish-era edition of the Cebuano Bible, "balangay" was used to refer to a community and "kabalangayan" appeared as plural of "balangay" in the gospel on "Mga Babaye nga Mikuyog kang Jesus".  In Western Visayas, the  "Legend of  the Ten Bornean Datus" referred to the ten chieftains who allegedly ventured to the Island of Panay on board sail boats called "balangay" to escape the tyrannical ruler of Borneo, Datu Makatunaw. However, recent studies discovered the irregularities of the said legend, which was actually labelled a hoax, and thus, it must not be believed as a reliable source of facts on precolonial Philippines. But still, even if these studies are contested, though history per se is limited to "written" historical accounts, the legend is considered "spoken" historical account and part and parcel of Filipino culture. The legend is an important part of the life, culture and identity of the Ilonggo people and inhabitants of Panay Island. There is no argument that the roots of the word "barangay" came from "balangay", the boat used by the Ten Bornean datus and their families. Until now, the head of the barangay is a "barangay captain", the only head of a government unit in the world named after a captain of a boat.”

THE BALANGAY AS A SYMBOL OF OUR UNITY AS ONE BOAT, ONE PEOPLE
In declaring the Balangay as our National Boat, we hope to recognize not only our ancestors’ ancient mastery of the seas but also to honor our highly developed pre-colonial society before the arrival of the Spanish colonizers. The teamwork that enabled our sea-faring ancestors to cross oceans and navigate rivers will serve as inspiration among Filipinos, particularly the youth, to sacrifice and perservere for the greater good of the greater number to attain common goals for mutual benefit. 

There is a need to undertake programs and projects that create awareness, especially among the youth, of our rich maritime heritage which will inculcate pride of country in our pre-colonial history as an old center of maritime trade in this part of Asia. Local government units can be encccouraged thru incentives to build their respective balangay replicas which will participate in local, regional and national regattas that will revive the culture of sailing among our young men and women. Budgets can be allocated to national line agencies in the regular conduct of sustainable educational interventions and cultural undertakings that will leave indelible imprints in the minds and hearts of Filipino children that they belong to a proud and courageous race worthy of a top-ranking place in the community of free and progressive nations.

Please accept our sincere gratitude and deep appreciation for your gallant efforts to make a difference in the lives of Filipinos by giving them more reasons to take pride and celebrate their being citizens of the Philipines. More particularly, in their belonging to the largest nation of seafarers in the world. For indeed, sailing is in the DNA of the Filipino!

WE LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR TIMELY ACTIONS TO DECLARE THE BALANGAY AS OUR COUNTRY'S NATIONAL BOAT!