Closer than we think

It is good news that President Duterte is paying more attention to our relations with Indonesia. We have many things in common as well as a shared history before colonialism descended in our countries.

The renewed relations were discussed in a meeting between President Duterte and Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi. It covered relations on trade, maritime security, education and anti-terrorist operations between Indonesia and the Philippines.

It is especially crucial that the two countries cooperate in securing their borders from terrorists who use the gaps in sea routes between the two countries.

Marawi reconstruction will be in vain if maritime security between the two countries is not mutually secured.

The two also discussed about education for Muslims in Madrasa institutions. The President had also expressed interest in providing scholarship to Muslim students, particularly those enrolled in Madrasa institutions.

The two countries will work together for a joint education program between the Philippines and Indonesia to spread Islamic values in Southeast Asian nations.

The renewed friendship between the Philippines and Indonesia has its roots in pre-colonial period. As his Christmas gift to me, my son opened my eyes to “baybayin,” an ancient script used by Filipinos and Indonesians in pre-colonial times. The script was used in Tagalog and Kapampangan areas. 

When the Spaniards came they used baybayin script in the printing of Bibles. Other scripts, such as Hanunóo, Buhid, and Tagbanwa are still used today, along with Kapampangan script.

Perhaps the Laguna Copperplate Inscription (Filipino: Inskripsyon sa Binatbat na Tanso ng Laguna, Malay: Prasasti keping tembaga Laguna; often shortened into the acronym LCI), a legal document inscribed on a copper plate in 900 AD, is the earliest known written document found in the Philippines.

The plate was found in 1989 by a laborer near the mouth of the Lumbang River in Wawa barangay, Lumban municipality, Laguna province. The inscription, written in a mix of the Old Malay language using the Old Kawi script, was first deciphered by Dutch anthropologist and Hanunó’o script expert Antoon Postma in 1992.^[1][2]

The LCI documents the existence of several early Philippine polities as early as 900 AD, most notably the Pasig River delta polity of Tondo. Scholars believe that it also indicates trade, cultural, and possibly political ties between these polities and at least one contemporaneous Asian civilization – the Medang Kingdom of the island of Java.

The inscription was written in Kawi script – a writing system developed in Java, and using a mixture of languages including Sanskrit, Old Javanese, Old Malay and Old Tagalog. This was a rare trace of Javanese influence, which suggests the extent of interinsular exchanges of that time.

It was Art Valdez who was in the first Filipino group that climbed the Mount Everest who told me that Filipinos in those times were problem-solvers and inventive. He reads accounts of their many achievements in the past because of this attitude. “I don’t know why we changed from being leaders to become blind to what we are capable of doing,” he said.

I was surprised with what he said. This was something I had no idea about and were not taught in school that Filipinos where achievers. Our conversation about this was at the height of the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea) conflict. I brought him along to a lunch with the Chinese Embassy officials to tell them of an excellent project to illustrate how it was that the sea was a unifying factor among the peoples of the region. It was Filipinos who invented the balangay and used it to cruise to different countries wherever the balangay brought them.

“Filipinos were a sea-faring people and suggested it be the symbol of the Philippine nation,” he said. We talked about suggesting a joint Philippine-Chinese project. We lost contact but he continued with his dream of using a balangay to travel around the Philippines.

“Until you do this you will not appreciate the beauty of our country.” What a splash it would have made had the Chinese and Philippine government done the project at the height of the conflict.

It would also have been the best lessons of Philippine history and friendship in the region.

Recently I saw an ad for cruising the Philippines in a balangay. What was an idea had become reality.

“While the Philippines is a mountainous country, it is also an archipelago. Thus, it was natural for us to look to our seas,” Valdes adds.

“This is where the balangay comes in. Our plan is to construct a balangay, the sailboat used by our forefathers to travel across the Southeast Asian islands. 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. It is a means of transport and communication. In fact, nearby countries have their own version of the balangay. There is the tatara for Taiwan, the lepa for Malaysia and perahu for Indonesia.”

“The wood came from the established traditional source in southern Philippines, specifically Tawi-Tawi. We have pinpointed Badjao master boat builders, whose predecessors actually built such boats. We used traditional tools and not modern ones.

Aside from the outdoor adventure endeavor, we will use the balangay trips to assist in community-building, particularly for coastal communities. The balangay’s construction was meant for travel hugging the coastline and not for deep waters. This then is a plus factor in our community-building efforts. We will travel along the shorelines and stop at communities and key human settlement centers, including cities, to hold seminars. We intend to heighten awareness of global warming. We aspire to challenge our people to help out in watershed management and also in coastal rehabilitation. We also plan to support wholesome coastal tourism and development.

In our travels, we will share our self-image and self-assertion that the Filipino can do the impossible. By exhibiting and challenging Filipino ingenuity and native survival skills in this modern age with the use of ancient seafaring technology, we aim to rekindle maritime consciousness among our people which colonialism took away.

Indeed, with the balangay and the modern transport and related facilities, together we can make concrete our balangay theme for Southeast Asia: We are one!” -Art Valdez, from: http://www.balangay-voyage.com