Butuan Celebrates 59th Adlaw Hong Butuan

Champion BCSAT Pep Squad



The ANHS Eagle Squad



Libertad National High School Pep Squad



Champion, 1st Hip Hop Dance Competition



1st Prize Winner Grand Float Competition: DILG family



DOH entry specal award for Best Thematic on its campaign against A(H1N1)



Congressman Jose Aquino II looks on as City Fire Marshall Rey Antonio Restauro received the keys from DILG Secretary Ronalpo Puno and Councilor Randolph Plaza, witnessed by City Tourism Council Chair Daisy Plaza









Officialdom of Butuan City led in today’s activities in celebration of the 59th Adlaw Hong Butuan, a yearly event that celebrates Butuan’s Charter Day.

The celebration started with an early morning Thanksgiving Mass at St. Joseph Cathedral, followed with a floral offering of the tomb of Congressman Marcos Calo at Zamora cemetery and a motorcade from J. Rosales Avenue going to the city sports Complex where a program was held.

Three pep squads with their own official drummers’ chants their most popular cheer in Butuanon dialect during the cheerdance competition.

Declared champion for two consecutive years is the Butuan City Schools of Arts & Trade (BCSAT) receiving a cash price of 15,000 pesos, while the Agusan National High School (ANHS) and Libertad National High School got the 2nd and 3rd prize respectively.

Entry 9 from the DILG Family comprising the Bureau of Fire, Bureau of Jail and Management and the PNP won 1st prize with a 50,000 cash prize for the Grand Float Competition, followed by the City Schools Division of the Department of Education who was awarded with a 30,000 cash prize, while Butuan City Water District won 3rd place.

The distribution of 36 multicabs, 1 ambulance, 1 patrol car and 3 fire trucks by Congressman Jose Aquino II became the best part of the activity well applauded by the crowd.

The turn over of keys to City Fire Marshall Rey Restauro, Butuan Medical Center Chief Dr. Joyce Hidalgo, and City Police Director Joseph Plaza was witnessed by DILG Secretary Ronaldo Puno with the presence of City Tourism Council Chairperson Daisy B. Plaza and members of the Sangguniang Panglunsod.

Congressman Aquino in his speech reiterated his commitment to the DILG family and said, “The new patrol vehicle will boost the police visibility and response operation Butuan City, while the new fire truck is a big help to the BFP’s operation during fire incidents.”

The fire trucks being utilized in the City’s Bureau of Fire was last acquired in 1992.

Abayan Festival

Held every last sunday of July at PPA grounds, honoring patroness of Agusan River, St. Anne. This year, aside from the traditional baroto race in different category, Transpolympics was introduced to encouraged the transport sector in participating sport events. Kids also had their share of fun in the Laro ng lahi like bagol race, hullahoop race, lemonsito relay and many more.

Abayan festival marks the beginning of a weeklong merriment to last until August 2, in celebration of the 59th Adlaw Hong Butuan (charter day)





One of the highlights of Abayan Festival is the Baroto Race, people cheered. "Kadyawa, gau, kadyawa pa katsaong pag-gau ni-yo" motivating baroto contestants to make good with their rowing. Others were shouting: "kampay, kampay" to those who uses hands in rowing in other contest category.



Expectators notwithstanding the heat of the sun, others had their way to stay cool while watching baroto race till noon





Others aren't lucky enough, still tried their best to keep up.





Kids do have their own fun during the Abayan Festival in the Laro ng Lahi games like the Hulahoop Race





Adding fun of the event is the Transpolympics, a basketball tournament for the transportation sector

Historic Unveiling of Balanghai

Father Joesilo Amalla blessed the Balanghai



The ancient boat, Balanghai was finally launched into the waters of the Manila Bay.





Balanghai now named Diwata ng Lahi will be manned by members of the Everest Team: Art Valdez, Leo Oracion, Erwin Emata, Noelle Wenceslao, Carina Dayondon, Janet Sardena, Dr. Ted Esguerra, Fred Jamili & Dr. voltaire Velasco and will sail coastwise with the help of nature based navigational techniques such as the sun, stars, cloud formations, wind, birds and wave patterns.







The Balanghai Team will set sail every major port in the Philippines and organize coastal clean-up, tree planting, lectures on Philippine maritime history and mini-fiestas. Cabadbaran, Agusan del Norte and Butuan City are among the places to be visited by the Balanghai.










The once seen only in drawings and at Balanghai Museum can now be seen what it looked like as master crafters from Sibutu Tawi-Tawi re-created balanghai.

In Butuan relic of the oldest Philippine watercraft – Balangay 1, carbon dated age 1630 years before present (110 years), measured 15 meters in length and 3 meters wide across the beam, discovered on September 3, 1976. Circa – 320 A.D. as determined by the Gakushuin University, Tokyo, Japan. Only in Butuan, in no other locality in the Philippines or in Southeast Asia for the matter, has there been such rare and extensive recovery of these maritime vessels and the cultural relics associated with an affluent seafaring people in this part of the globe. Visit the Balngahai Museum in Ambangan, Libertad, Butuan City

Re-creating Balanghai in Butuan

Balanghai Circumnavigation Team is planning to build Balanghai 2, here in Butuan City; this is the latest development as former DOTC Undersecretary Art Valdez makes a commitment after successfully completing the Balanghai using ancient construction methods that can now be seen at CCP grounds.

Butuan Historical and Cultural Foundation and Butuan Global Forum will have a major role in raising funds for the realization of the project and of giving opportunity to those living in Butuan to see a Balanghai and be part of another important event in the history of tracing back the pre-Hispanic times of sea travel.

The historical wooden boat will be replicated here in Butuan and the process has started by getting an approval from DENR Caraga to obtain materials like the Dungon which will be sourced locally, the same kind of wood used by the team of Balanghai Project Manager Judail Muyong in building Balanghai 1.

Valdez and the group of people from Tawi-tawi, the home of the Badjaos' Master Builder who created the Balanghai will be coming over to Butuan to start the construction anytime in July 2009.

The Badjaos from the Island of Sibutu are the last community in the Philippines who knows how to build Balanghai using ancient method.

Initial talks are underway to negotiate PPA to use their area in the construction of Balanghai 2.
Instead of earlier announcement that Balanghai 1 will set sail on June 24, Voyage Balanghai will have its maiden voyage on June 27 following the cycle of the New Moon.
Balanghai Circumnavigation Team led by Valdez will have a 20-man team which will compose the Philippine's Mount Everest team with tourism officials and scientists namely, Leo Oracio, Ervin Pastor Ermita, Noel Winceslao, Karina Dayondon, Janet Belarmino-Sardina, Dr. Ted Esguerra, Fred Jamili and Dr. Walter Villasco, 6 Badjaos who will help in navigating Balanghai, 4 from the Special Operations Group of the Philippine Navy, and hopefully, 2 from Butuan.

The Philippine Coast Guard provided a ship to escort Voyage Balanghai on its journey to show their support.

Voyage Balanghai now included Butuan City as part of its stop over in the 7-leg journey around Philippine waters. It will stay in Butuan for 5 days before proceeding to travel towards Cagayan de Oro City and if luck would have it, Balanghai 2 built in Butuan will now join Voyage Balanghai in circumnavigating the world.

If Balanghai 2 will not yet be finished by the time Voyage Balanghai arrives in Butuan, it will catch up in a much later date.

Meanwhile, local historian Greg Hontiveros will join the Balanghai Circumnavigation Team in one of its leg of the Voyage Balanghai to write a book about the Balanghai: “The Maritime Heritage of Southeast Asia.”

Mr. Hontiveros is the author of "Butuan of a Thousand Years" where he wrote:

"In July 1976, antique hunters hit on the remains of a large wooden boat in sitio Ambangan of barangay Libertad, a couple of kilometers south of Suatan. This discovery was unprecedented in Asia: the balanghai boat relics were the eastern equivalent to the Viking boat discoveries in Northern Europe."

In 1987, President Corazon Aquino declared Balanghai as a national treasure.

Balanghai (Butuan Boat) to Circumnavigate the World

The Master Builder: Master Balanghai Project Manager Judail Muyong, pointing to the final destination of the Balangay Voyage: Tawi-Tawi



To make the Balangay water-tight, they use natural resin from mangrove trees.



The planks are connected with pegs (dowels. The historical wooden boat which did not use any single nail and built in a lashed lug technique believed to have been used by Malay settlers in their vast sea travel during pre-Hispanic times will be used again to circumnavigate the World.



Balanghai Circumnavigation Team headed by former DOTC USEC Art Valdez



Art Valdez' pet dogs will be joining in this historical Balanghai Journey.



Phase 1: Philippine waters with 7 legs: Manila, Boracay, Mactan in Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, Zamboanga, General Santos, Davao City, Siluag in Tawi-Tawi





On June 5 after 40 days of construction, the now famous Balanghai (pronounced as Ba-la-ngay) Boat is complete, and will soon be transferred to Manila Bay on June 12, 111th Independence Day Celebration, after it finally sets sail on June 24 in time for the Araw ng Maynila.

Last April 24 of this year, the The Kaya ng Pinoy Foundation, together with the Philippine Mt. Everest Expedition team, spearheaded the ceremonial laying of the keel held at the CCP grounds, Pasay City with Former President Fidel Ramos as the keynote speaker.

The event signals the start of the construction with the age old tradition in boat building that this will bring good fortune and safe voyage.
According to former DOTC Undersecretary Art Valdez, the team will attempt to set a record by travelling around the world using the ancient Filipino sailing vessel called Balanghai or Butuan Boat, the first phase consists of 7 legs around Philippine waters namely Manila, Boracay, Mactan in Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, Zamboanga, General Santos, Davao City and Siluag in Tawi-tawi before it begins to retrace the trading routes in Southeast Asia on 2010.

Butuan Boat primarily was chosen because it is the very first mode of transportation used by the forefathers in trading with the Chinese and other Asians and it has been used long before the Philippines was discovered, as Butuanons proudly say: “There was no Philippines, but there was Butuan”.

The same group of men and women who had set the record as the first Filipinos to have reached the summit of Mount Everest in 2006, and the first Filipino women, who carried out the same feat a year later will make up the Balanghai circumnavigation team composed of Leo Oracion, Edwin “Pastor” Emata, Noelle Wenceslao, Carina Dayondon, Janet Belarmino-Sardena, Dr. Ted Esguerra, Fred Jamili, Dr. Voltaire Velasco, and Usec Art Valdez who heads the team.

The Balangay was created using ancient construction methods. The shell is made of Dungon, which is the wood used by Philippine ancestors, while the planks are connected with pegs (the "dowels") and to make the Balanghai water-tight, the builders used natural resin from mangrove trees.

The Balangay measured 15 meters long and 3 meters wide is located near Folk Arts Theater and the Sun Cruises Ferry going to Corregidor. (photos by Anton Diaz)

Giant Loggerhead Pawikan Found in Masao, Butuan

A giant endangered pawikan was caught by fisherman Milanio Malinao in his fish cage in the coastal waters of Masao in the morning of June 4, 2009.

Forester Requerme Hebia, Chief of the Protected Areas & Wildlife of CENRO Butuan identified the pawikan belonging to the Loggerhead specie, measuring 104.1 cm in length and 86.4 cm in width.

Of the 7 known species of marine turtles in the world, 5 are found in the Philippines namely, the loggerhead, leatherback, olive ridley, hawksbill and green turtle.

“This is the 3rd time in 2009 that a pawikan was caught in the same area but the previous two are undocumented, and this is the largest so far”, said Forester Hebia.

Forester Hebia upon examination of the rescued giant Loggerhead pawikan showed that it has no injuries, no markings or tags on its flippers which are an indicator that it has not been caught before.

After the tagging on her right flipper, at exactly 11 o’clock in the morning, Forester Hebia, CENRO Staff, along with personnel from the City ENRO and several Masao residents, the loggerhead pawikan was released back to the sea.

Last year, 4 pawikans were found in Caraga identified as a Leatherback specie and was properly documented.

Butuan: site of the first official hoisting of Philippine Flag in Mindanao

The 100 ft historic flag pole, getting ready for June 11 on its 111th Philippine Independence Day Celebration.

The story:In 1999 the National Centennial Commission proclaimed that Butuan was the site of the 1st flag-raising in Mindanao and that it took place on January 17,1899.

The flag was raised at the town square, attended by Filipino patriots led by Wenceslao Gonzales.

To commemorate the centenary of the event the commission had the town square refurbished and built a hundred-foot flagpole.

The claim was contested by Surigao and Cagayan de Oro. To settle the matter a roundtable panel, headed by former Supreme Court Associate Justice Camilo D. Quiason, was convened. It heard the presentations by the three cities.

Representatives from Cagayan de Oro said that the Philippine flag was raised by Filipino patriots in their place on January 10, 1899. The spokesmen from Surigao presented evidence that the flag was raised there as early as December 26, 1898.

Though it was said that the flag was observed flying without any fanfare, the panel ruled in favor of Surigao. The National Historical Institute installed a marker recognizing Surigao.

However, to date, Butuan was recognized as the site of the FIRST OFFICIAL hoisting of the Philippine flag in Mindanao.