The banca, bangka in the vernacular,  came in many shapes and sizes.  Some were motorized and many were propelled by wooden paddles which were either hand made or machine made.  The paddles  were provided at the end part a tee for better handling and grip unlike the oars. Some banca were outfitted with bamboo outriggers for better stability  although  some manueverality  was sacrificed.  Some boats  were painted according to the owners' fancy.  Some sported names real and imagined like Hagibis. Darna (  cartoon characters ) Maria Luisa, Linda ( real names ).  Our  boat was named Capt. Joe Carven, in honor of my twin brothers Jose  and Carlos  who died in their infancy and the Ven was obviously for me.  I even spotted on the prow of a banca a monicker NAHAD -NAHAD  I did not  know whether it was intentional or not for the real word was DAHAN - DAHAN  which meant slow, methodical or slowly -does-it .  It caught the peoples' and my attention. Some boats were oufitted with a sail like a moro vinta. I remember my Lolo Taning of Sta. Monica coming home from fishing near the sea on his boat sailing on the river even  though he was half asleep and sometimes even full asleep.

 My late father Andres , bless his soul, and I used a motorized banca driven by de-cinco ( 5 hp ) Johnson outboard motor to go to the fishpond near the sea to harvest  shrimps to sell in the town market.  To while my time on that 3 to 4 hour journey on weekends when there was no school  , I used to compose poems and stories in my head. We went to the market on time on the banca laden with freshly caught shrimps aided by the stars.  My father could tell time through the position of the stars in the skies specially the Timbangan, the Libra stars- a skill handed to him by his seafaring forefathers.

When we did not go to the fishpond on weekend, I used our banca with the outboard motor removed, to ferry sabungeros on tupada day to the cockfighting house across the river in Barrio San Sebastian.  I earned some pocket money to be spent as baon to school.  When I liked to ride a a fast boat ,usually driven by a 25 HP Johnson motor, I asked Ka Banay Tolentino who was considered  a brother to us.  I had the joy ride of my life when we circled in full throttle the casco where the barrio patron saint was enthroned, during the river pagoda.  People on the float barge and other bancas and the spectators on the shore waved their hands as we passed them and we waved back to them.

 The banca was a very useful mode of transportation during the ordinary days and most specially when there was a high flood on the street. I remember during market day which was Wednesday then , there were hundreds of banca going to the town market.  They came from all over mostly from the fishponds as far away as Pampanga to replenish their monthly supplies of food, groceries and general needs.  During the Lenten season, the river was deserted with nary a boat.  All were beached on the shore. Those were the days I used to remember way back in the sixties in my hometown of Hagonoy, in the province of Bulacan

Munting Nayon News Magazine