Filipino mountaineers plan to circumnavigate globe

Manila: Five Filipino mountain climbers who have scaled Mount Everest will go round the world's oceans on a boat modelled on a 1,600-year-old wooden seafaring vessel, a local newspaper reported.

The expedition team will comprise Leo Oracion and Edwin Erwin, who reached the summit of Mount Everest in 2006, besides Noelle Wenceslao, Carina Dayondon, and Janet Belarmino-Sardena, the first Filipinas to achieve the feat (in 2007), former transportation undersecretary Art Valdez told the Star.

"Experienced master sailors will accompany the team," said Valdez, adding that Dr Ted Esguerra, the doctor who accompanied the mountaineers; Fred Jamili, a Mount Everest expedition leader; and Dr Voltaire Velasco, an environmental physicist, are also part of the team.

"Their aim is to set a record of sailing around the world aboard balanghai, a historical Philippine sailing vessel that was unearthed in Butuan, southern Philippines, in 1977," said Valdez.

The first phase of the voyage will be flagged off at Manila Bay on June 24, passing by Boracay and Mactan in Cebu, central Philippines, besides Cagayan de Oro, Zamboanga, General Santos, Davao City and Siluag in Tawi-Tawi in the southern Philippines,.

In 2010, the team will retrace the ancient Southeast Asian trading routes and aim to pass the Micronesian nations and Madagascar by 2011 before venturing into the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans by 2012. The team plans to be back in the Philippines by 2013.

"We want to show to the world, that the Filipinos and the Butuanons were expert seafarers even before the Spaniards and Europeans came to our shores in the 16th century," Valdez said.

The new 15-metre-long and three-metre-wide balanghai was made of dungon, the favourite material of ancient Filipino boat-makers.

With wooden pegs securing planks, natural resin from mangrove trees was used to make the boat water-proof. The boat-makers used a lashed-lug technique commonly used in Southeast Asia during the pre-Hispanic era.

The project took shape on April 24 when the Kaya ng Pinoy Foundation and the Everest expedition team members got together at the Cultural Centre Complex along Manila Bay.