Name: Glaiza Kaye T.

Salazar Course and Section: BSPH 1-B

Reaction Paper in Readings of Philippine History

Massive balangay ‘mother boat’ unearthed in Butuan

The world we view today is full of mystery, and even our nation; the Philippines to be

exact is full of unexcavated past. Mysteries that keep on bugging a historian’s mind. There

are a lot more that needs to be uncovered, and that is via discovery. Almost eight years ago

a science journalist, fiction writer and a science education advocate published an article on

the official website of GMA News Network Online about an intriguing discovery entitled

“Massive balangay ‘mother boat’ unearthed in Butuan”, and that dynamic Filipino writer is

Timothy James M. Dimacali.

In a marshy plain in Mindanao, specifically in Butuan City on the eighth month of the

year 2013, the largest ancient Filipino boat lies unexcavated which is said to be 800 years

older than the ships used by European explorers. Archeologist Dr. Mary Jane Louise A.

Bolunia of the National Museum, who heads the on-site research team, says that almost

everything about the newly discovered 'balangay' is massive. It was recognized to be having

planks that cannot be duplicated due to the reason that there are no more trees big enough

to suit the size of it, treenails alike the size of a soda can and with nails that size the boat is

estimated to measure almost twice the size of the eight smaller craft discovered from late

nineteenth century. Although the boat has not yet been completely excavated, it is estimated

to have a length of at least 25 meters. There are a lot of historical criticism that needs to be

done before this ‘mother boat’ can be dated and identified, it all depends on the physical

features of the boat on how it was designed before it can be termed as a balangay according
to an archaeologist and anthropologist Dr. Jesus Peralta. Until now, this said ‘balangay’ lies

unearthed for it to be protected on its watery crypt and be preserved. The act of preserving

the boat, built doubts of what it actually is, but despite of all the doubt the author and the

discovery team wants to deliver unto us a wake-up call to change the way the majority

thought about early Filipino seafarers. Tons of action needs to be presumed to uncover, but

this discovery offers us great hope that it could be the “missing link” in our marine culture

for us to rewrite and recorrect more past misconceptions, and it would turn out to be the key

to unlock the answers to the linking doubts about how early Filipinos travelled, lived, and

wrestled with their past daily lives.

We are sometimes blinded about what other countries tell us of what we are, we tend

to view our nation to be lesser than others. But gladly, Filipino archeologists are doing

everything to prove to us that even before we possess treasures and memories that would

gradually alter those negative views about us and help us to have pride of what we have back

then and start to be ethnocentric today. For me, it was not the recently discovered ‘balangay’

itself that is important, but it is what the insights and answers it gives us about the

unfathomable past. Just as what Marcel Proust says, “The real voyage of discovery consists

not in seeking landscapes (or things just like the ‘mother boat’), but in having new eyes”.

Reference:

GMA News Online. (2013). Massive Balangay ‘Mother Boat’ Unearthed in Butuan. Retrieved

on February 25, 2021 from. https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/scitech/science/massive

The Maritime Review. (2017). Massive Balangay ‘Mother Boat’ Unearthed in Butuan.

Retrieved on February 25, 2021 from. https://maritimereview/massive-balangay-mother-