Municipality of Davao

THE MUNICIPALITY OF DAVAO

The establishment of the municipal government of Davao was in 1901, by virtue of Act No. 82 of the second Philippine Commission. It was housed in a building located on the spot of what is now occupied by the Sangguniang Panlungsod. That time the first floor was occupied by the municipal government while the second floor was occupied by the Provincial Government (first Provincial Government building was located on a spot near the PC Barracks now named Camp Domingo Leonor).

The first municipal president of Davao was Damaso Suazo who was elected by indirect vote of the people through the prominent citizens of the municipality called upon to select their municipal president while the vice president was Teodoro Palma Gil. Damaso Suazo was succeeded by Angel Brioso followed by Anuncio Generoso, then Tomas Monteverde and back again to Damaso Suazo. Suazo was succeeded by Ciriaco Lizada, the last to occupy the position under the civil government. Ciriaco R. Lizada, a pioneer migrant from Luzon married a Dabawenya. (It was said that after a convention of all municipal presidents in Mindanao held in Zamboanga, Lizada was able to bring some money as aid to the municipality of Davao. He used the money for the improvement of the Osmena Park).

Because complete peace was not yet achieved in Mindanao, a military government was established in 1903 known as the Moro Province with Zamboanga as capital. Davao was established as a district with seven municipalities. The Bagobos, Tagacaolos, Mansakas, Guingans, Mandayas and the Muslims were organized as tribal wards administered by native headmen. During the period military explorations in the interior was done by the American government.

The native inhabitants’ relation with the American colonizers was full of conflict from the very beginning. The natives felt they were exploited by the American planters and deprived of their ancestral land. Natives were also subjected to taxation to pay for colonial administrative expenses. Male inhabitants were required to work in public highways and if they refuse they were forced to pay taxes. These colonial exploitations were causes of social unrest that led to murders and mutinies.

On June 6, 1906 Lt. Edward Bolton, governor of the District of Davao who became a plantation owner himself, was assassinated with another American by the name of Benjamin Christian, an employee of the Culaman Company in Malita. The assassin was Mungalayon, a Tagacaolo chief. (It was said that Mungalayon, a Tagacaolo chief was aggrieved because Governor Bolton had appointed a rival to a government office. But others maintain that Mungalayon was embroiled in a land dispute with some American planters and Bolton was killed while attempting to settle the dispute). In 1909 a local constabulary unit mutinied against their abusive American Officers and many Americans were killed including a prominent plantation owner Roy E. Libby.

In 1903 Davao had only sixteen American pioneer-settlers. In 1905 when Davao was still a district under the Moro Province there were reports that between twenty and thirty Americans were making successes on hemp and coconut plantations scattered at wide intervals along the Davao Gulf coasts. 1910 the Secretary of the Davao Planters Association Otto O. Hanson wrote in his report that the planters had transformed a “gloomy forest ruled by boar and boa constrictor in the Philippines into a most active garden spot.”

Lt. Edward Bolton while still a governor formed a corporation, together with his friends in the military, which invested in the development of abaca and coconut in what was to become the Culaman plantation in Malita. Captain James Burchfield developed his land in Daliao which he named Kentucky Plantation, after his home state in the United States. Sgt. William Gohn developed a plantation in Santa Cruz.

During this early period of the American regime the town of Davao was already established as a trade center in Mindanao for coffee, cacao, abaca and cattle. More American settlers invested their savings in rubber and coconut plantations. The savings of these pioneering Americans were from their civilian employment after their discharge from military service.

First and foremost among the problems that faced the American planters/landowners was ferm labor. At first local indigenous tribes were hired and then recruited Christian Filipinos from Luzon and the Visayas to work in the newly-opened plantations but did not prove to be effective. Hiring indigenous ethnic tribes proved to be a handicap because they were the unwilling workers. Another thing that caused the shortage of farm laborers were the devastating pestilences and calamities that resulted in the death of native workers. The demand for laborers could not be met by natives alone.

The need of the American plantation owners for hardy and industrious laborers was met by the unemployed Japanese laborers who were brought to the Philippines by the American builders of the Kennon zigzag road in Baguio (1899-1904). They were recruited and brought by the American discharged soldiers turned plantation-owners to work in the latters’ plantation. These

Japanese arrived in Davao in the years 1904 and 1905. Thus started the continuous migration of the Japanese to Davao. (However, the very first Japanese to arrive in Davao were those brought by a certain Matute [Spanish trader] in the late 1800’s. They were hired by Juan Awad, a Lebanese pioneer migrant and by Teodor Palma Gil to work in their farms in Lapanday and Tigatto. ) It was Ohta Kyosaburu, a Japanese merchant from Kobe, Japan who came to the Philippines in the early 900’s to arrange for the important of the job-seeking abaca laborers and to act as the labor contractor for the labor- seeking abaca plantation owners. These Japanese laborers were imported into Davao in 1904-1905. Japanese settlement in Davao was attributed to three factors namely; (1). The need of the abaca plantation owners for the hardy and industrious laborers; 2) the presence in the Philippines of unemployment Japanese who had been brought by the American builders in Kennon zigzag road in Baguio; and (3) the foresighted enterprise of Ohta Kyosaburu who was brought to Davao by Governor Carpenter. Ohta himself settled permanently in Davao in 1905 where he opened general store that catered to the needs of his compatriots. The Japanese pioneers had meet all the things needed for agricultural development. They provided capital and manpower ( disciplined and hardworking Japanese laborers.) Without the Japanese who conquered the terrors of the jungles in Davao in early days, perhaps the Dabawenyos today would not be enjoying the economic prosperity and would not be able to attract people to other places. It was known facts that the development of Davao province was a result of the Japanese efforts. It was so because the Japanese were disciplined and very cooperative and above all, they were fully supported financially by their government and private enterprises. Observant Filipinos of the period many of the qualities which of the Japanese community in their midst seemed to demonstrate ¬¬---their industriousness, cooperation thriftiness and obedience to law. Dr. Santiago P. Dakudao, Sr.’s association with the Japanese began in 1914 when he studied medicine in Japan. He practiced his profession in Mental Hospital of the Ohta Development Company and had lived continuously mingling with the Japanese for a period of 28 years. He had these to say about the Japanese people…

This long association with the Japanese gave me an opportunity to study closely to individual traits. I admire Japanese for his honesty, clean habit, industriousness and methodical and thorough manner of what he does. The Japanese I their houses adopt in a sense of scrupulous cleaning habit ts. Upon waking up in the morning the first sound one hears in Japanese houses in the tap made by the housewife dusting the paper window panes and paper sliding doors. This is done with quick strokes of the tufted sticks. She then sweeps the floor, mops with a damp clothes and with shiny floor and mirrors of quality. The front and backyards are likewise given attention making, them spotless clean and trim every morning and thereon. The Japanese are industrious. They work from dawn to late evening everyday of the week throughout the year. They do not have an (8) hours Labor nor the Blue Sunday Law. To my mind this is the key to the phenomenal rise of Japanese nation.

Osaka Bazaars, general and department store that catered to the needs of the Japanese settlers, were opened not only in the poblacion but also in outskirts. One was opened in Tugbok District and other one in Daliaon Toril. There was a report made on the history of Osaka Bazar in Naming Anggalan Tugbok District, Davao City by Mrs. Lydia P. Hofer, a college instructure in USP-CDM of Mintal Davao City. The report was made possible through an interview with Mr. Pasama Ambet, a pure native Bagobo and pre-war resident of Naming, Anggalan. According to the native “ the Osaka Bazar which has a constructed by the Japanese contributed to the development of our places in the business center. It is a place where the people of the Anggalan converge for economic before the Second World War. The Osaka Bazar was built of wooden materials derived from a trees of the virgin forest in Naming, Anggalan. The forests were cleared, opened planted to abaca and ramie and abaca. The land around Osaka Bazar were owned by the natives who agreed that natives who agreed that their land be rented by the Japanese. The payment will be percentage from the income /harvest of ramie and abaca for the use of land”. The Japanese who contributed much to the economic advancement of Davao during the period were Ohta Kyosaburu and Yoshizu Furukawa, owner of business firms which major enterprise was the raising of abaca for the making of hemp. Ohta, the organizer of the Development Company of Talomo introduced the experimentation in the growing and harvesting of abaca and other agricultural product such as, coffee, rubber, and cotton. Furukawa Yoshizo established the Furukawa Corporation in Daliao. Some Japanese pioneer workers during the period intermarried with the ethnic indigenous tribe like the Bagobos and some other ethnic tribes. The descendants of such unions are getting along well with the other groups of people in the community. To quote Modesto Farolan in his book The Davao Problem, he said: natives are those pioneers of many years ago, most of them, who jungle. These industrious pioneers lived in isolation, some dying in their wilds often unheard of, and of them who successfully withstood the rigors of life were also the one that learned to live the natives way of life. Was unnatural then, that love developed between Japanese and Bagobos under such circumstances? The latter association with the former undoubtedly has been a civilizing influences of incalculable value, which neither the soldiers gun nor the teachers book could have accomplished. If one is to judge today by the mode of life of the native wives of Japanese and the old-timers and their mestizo children, the Japanese –Bagobo unions are not an unhappy kind. Colonel Carmi A. Thompson, who sent to the Philippines’ as special representatives of U.S. President Coolidge, said to his Japanese host that he was already aware of what happening in Davao and further said that he recognized the introduction of capital investment and application of machine power by the Japanese had made possible the progress of Davao.

Prosperous American planters developed abaca, coconut and rubber plantations. The wealth of the Americans is almost in the plantation around the gulf area. The abaca farming was transformed into a plantation economy. The Japanese developed the production of export. The abaca production progressed with the establishment of firms for the cultivation and processing abaca into fiber known as “ Manila Hemp”. When at first, the Japanese were hired as the plantation workers by the American, foreign and Filipino migrant planters and hacenderos like Dr, Santiago P. Dakudao and Marcelino Maruya, they later became plantation owner themselves when they were able to purchase land through the financial help expanded to them by their home government. From on the Japanese developed abaca plantation of their own and acquired more land from mostly the Bagobo tribe and those brought from the American who left. Japanese corporation were established like the Ohta Development Company. Davao Mercantile Corporation, Furukawa Plantation Company and Southern Cross Plantation Co. The Japanese not only controlled hemp making the Davao but also fishing and lumber making. They dominated the trade, commerce and industry Some American planters did not succeed in their attempt to cultivate and developed the rich land of Davao. They failed to secure the needed capital and did not have the skill to pioneer I their newly-opened land. It was aggravated further by the rigors and hazards of tropical living, unlike the Japanese worker who almost came from the Okinawa or Kyushu and Western Honshu, Japan who found life in Davao similar to their places of origin. The under-financed American pioneer planters encountered several hardships and had difficulty adjusting to alien surroundings. All the factors combined led to this American exodus leaving only a few to continue the venture. They sold their plantation then left for home. Those who stayed and succeeded were married to the native women of Bilaan and Mandaya ancestries. Those who continued the venture were W.H. Gohn, Ralph McFie, Jerry Roscom and Edward Christiansen. Some other American within recall to stayed behind were the Joyces, the Peabody of Malita, the Bakers, the Haleys, the Hughes, the burchfields, the Balcans, and the cars ( Angel and Johnny Carr). The Americans planters with financiers from Manila, Zamboanga and even from the United States developed larger plantations, than the others, like the Mindanao plantation Company known then as the Crumb Plantation Company and the Mindanao Estate Company in Padala later identified as the Walstrom Plantation. These were the early corporate plantations that provided training experiences in abaca and coconut culture. The socio-cultural influences of the American were the democratic ways of life, public education and the Protestant religion. In 1903 Rev. and Mrs. Robert Black were sent by their home church in the United States to Davao upon the request of the pioneer American planters and congregational missioners in the “primitive and pestilential Davao Gulf”. In 1908 the American, established the first Mission Hospital in which later became the Broken shire Memorial Hospital in memory of Dr. Herbert Brokenshire, the adventurous American who came in 1926 who administered the Mission Hospital with dedication for fifth teen years until he died in the Philippines during the Second World War. The American cultural policies were heavily concentrated on public education. Public schools were established and opened both in the elementary and the secondary levels in the town proper and outskirts. At the beginning school official and teachers are American but later the Filipinos took over after they were trained as teachers. But, most of the indigenous ethnic tribes resisted education. School officials and teachers exerted efforts to reached them for the education of their children. Extension classes were opened to interior to reached the most isolated tribes. The early American community of Davao composed of former soldier-turned-settlers/planted, school teacher, protestant, missionaries, engineer who built bridges and roads, and government officials and their families. They took part in the different social and economic activities in their community. The American settled in their costal plantation. Wives of plantation owners described life in the frontier community as joyful despite hardship and deprivation. Every so often they would bored launches which piled to Davao Gulf to make business with the native inhabitant with interior such as buying abaca and selling things. In the town proper or cabecera an American club was organized on week-ends it served as the gathering place for lonely planters and their families coming from the coast plantation. The Club became the center of social activities and a place for American to relax and share experiences with one another. People lived simply without hotels and no recreation center except one cinema house was owned by Jerry Roscom, an American pioneer settlers, preserved their language and costumes. The foreign Christian Filipino migrant in the town proper maintain the existence wholly different and distinct from that of the native indigenous tribe and Muslim. Many of the native encountered discrimination and suffer social disadvantages. The gap between the group was cause caused by the difference in education, social background, wealth and social standards. The indigenous people tribes lag behind the Christian Filipinos and foreign migrant in matters of educational attainment. The Davao Muslims are intermediate position culturally between the Christian migrant and ethnic indigenous tribes. The wide diversity of the social, nationality and cultural group of which the present Davaoenos is composed made Davao the melting pot in Southern Philippines. Because of such diversity existed different regional groupings. In the poblacion Tagalog, Ilocanos, Visayan, Bicolanos, Bagobo, Bilaans, Mandayas and the Muslim communities of the Tausug, Maguindanaoans, Maranaos, and Calagans retained their respective linguistic and cultural identities. The Muslim in the Davao comes from the different ethnic groups. But in some differences in their folkways, they form a strong coherent and unified specially when it comes to religious customs and tradition. In 1914 the Moro department was abolished and the Department of Mindanao and Sulu was created. Davao became one of the provinces of said department with Davao Municipality as its capital. In 1917 when Eulalio Causing was still the governor, the first election for the president of the Municipality was held. Juan dela Cruz was elected as president against his opponent in Facundo Joven. Since then all municipal president were duly elected by popular vote. Those elected in the succeeding election were Constancio Guzman, Gregorio Torres, Vicente Masecampo, Bruno Gempesaw and Albert Zamora. The press in Davao under the American regime had its beginning in 1917 when the Davao first newspaper “ Eco de Davao” was published by Judge Joaquin Rodriguez, the grandfather of Joaquin Jack Rodriguez ( the husband of Sonja Habana, daughter of Antonio Habana, Jr., a former Davao councilor). The said newspaper ventilated the people’s in everyday happenings in the community. In 1918 another newspaper came out “ El sur” published by the Davao Publishing Co., Inc. Years another one was published the “Maguindanao” edited first by Celestino Chavez and after WWII Cesar Sotto took over as editor. “Mindanao Times” was published after the war of Guillermo Torres. Then, the PME Fathers published the “Sentinel”. History has its also recorded that in October 1918, a group of women from Manila who had neither directly nor indirectly given their consent to their “deportation” ( expelled from the City of Manila as women of questionable character) reached Davao City where they were landed and were receipted for as laborers by Governor Francisco Sales and some hacenderos. After the a court of battle some of them returned to Manila but some opted to stay and got married.