‘Bangkaripas’ toy boat race returns to Bulacan

BULAKAN, Bulacan—For a second time, youth groups and local folks at a coastal village in the Bulacan town of Bulakan turned their river into a colorful playground reliving their childhood memories of sailing their ‘bangkang papel’ (paper boats).

This happened in this year’s ‘Bangkaripas,  Karera ng mga Bangkang Kumakaripas’ at the start of the week, October 19.

Bangkaripas began in 2024 as a miniature boats race.

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Last week, 13 motor-operated bright and dashing small boats raced down the river of Barangay Tibig, operated by young boys and adults. 

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Bangkaripas is the kid-friendly version of the “Bangkarada,” the yearly fluvial parade of heavily decorated boats along Tibig River.

The event showcases the vibrant fishing industry in the town’s coastal communities, said village chief Maria Rosario Lava-Gamboa. 

The 11th incarnation of Bangkarada was staged on Oct. 7.

Bangkaripas was the brainchild of Sangguniang Kabataan Chairman Jay Jerome Salvador, an engineering graduate.

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He started the Bangkaripas project two years ago with the support of fellow youth leaders in Tibig.

He intended to partly to take up the challenge of serving as role models so children would not succumb to the ill effects of modern technology. 

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For Salvador, technology should only be a tool to improve the lives of the people, and that everyone still has to carry on, preserve and further evolve their inherited traditions.    

“Everywhere, in the heart of every Filipino kid, they played the paper boats under the rain, watched them float on pails of water, on large basins, in the kitchen sink,” he said.

“It is part of our rich barrio. In Bangkaripas, we make our real but tiny boats sail the real river,” 26-year-old Salvador told the Inquirer during the competition.

The miniature boats race not only unleashes the creativity and ingenuity of Tibig folks but also serves as an inspiration for “sailing into the real world,” he said.   

Gamboa and the rest of Tibig’s officials intend to pass a resolution that institutionalizes Bangkaripas as part of the annual Bangkarada festival.  

The tiny blinking boat of 13-year-old Jhanus Andrei Sulit was the fastest toy that traversed the Tibig river, bagging the first-place award. 

Sulit is a grandchild of a beloved fisherman in the village and is the son of a resort lifeguard.

“This is a good sport for me, it relieves me of stress from school activities,” he said. 

In the 2024 race, Sulit’s boat was adjudged best in appearance and design.