Bayambang sets Guinness World Record for tallest bamboo statue

By Yolanda Sotelo

BAYAMBANG — This agricultural town in central Pangasinan made a new Guinness Book Record with the establishment of the tallest bamboo sculpture in the world, a 50.23-meter statue of its patron saint Vincent Ferrer.

The crowd broke into applause when Guinness World Records adjudicator Swapnil Dangirikar announced the measurement of the statue, on the night of April 5.

The adjudication was witnessed by Aida Lapis, an independent Filipino forester and bamboo expert, while the surveyor was Engineer Roger Milla.

The statue, made of engineered bamboo with steel frame, is located at the Saint Vincent Prayer Park in Bani village of the town, a hilly area overlooking  vast agricultural lands.

This is the second Guinness record of the town. The first is the longest barbecue (eight kms) which the town staged during its 400th anniversary in 2014. It snatched the record from Turkey.

Dangirikar said the town did not try to beat a world record, but set a “first, unique record” because “this is the first time somebody has attempted to make a sculpture of this scale.”

He said  in setting a first time record, the Guinness sets as minimum guideline like a certain height, he said.

Dangirikar added that he imagined the sculpture to be big “but I did not know it was that huge and beautifully built.”

“We already saw the drawings before I came here so we knew it has support structure and is bamboo on the outside. The steel is okay but it has to be made completely of bamboo on the outside which I have checked. Also, it has to be of a certain height to qualify for a record, and I think I seen all I need to make the official statement tonight,” he said..

The unveiling of the St. Vincent Ferrer statue is a part of the celebration of the 400th founding anniversary of the St. Vincent Ferrer Parish (1619-2019) and 600th death anniversary (1419-1019) of the patron saint of builders.

Mayor Cesar Quaimbao said the municipal government did not spend a single centavo for the project, and that it was the Kasama Kita sa Barangay foundation that funded it.

He said it was a brainchild of his wife Mary Clare Judith Phyllis Jose-Quiambao but the project was undertaken by the Kasama Kita sa Barangay Foundation, Inc.

A briefer on the project said the statue was constructed for ten months with 608 men and one woman behind the construction. There was zero accidents/casualties during the entire construction.

The statue’s design was by JQS Builders using 3D polygon technology.

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