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  Filed under dchs88
  Mar 15

  Who is a Dabawenyo?
  Mindanao Times News
  Wednesday March 15, 2006

  (This space turns back the hands of time some 34 years ago. This was the editorial of the March 12, 1970 issue of this paper in time for the third celebration of the Araw ng Dabaw since it was institutionalized by the late Mayor Elias B. Lopez. Today, 34 years hence many among us still have to discover what is a Dabawenyo, Who is a Dabawenyo. – Editors)

  FOR the third time, since 1968, the foundation day of Davao City is being observed under the theme, Tayo ay Dabawenyo. The celebration covers one full week of activities – ranging from a walk in the sun, golf tournaments, beauty contest, races games, concerts, radio talks and street and park cleaning to the giving of awards to residents, both living and dead, who have rendered exemplary services or have contributed to the development and progress of this city.

  All of these activities, we agree, are generating a festive mood among the public and private sectors and are, happily, providing a little surcease from the lack of potable water and the rigors of rising prices of prime commodities.

  Mayor Elias B. Lopez, who must be congratulated for having initiated the observance of the birth anniversary, said last week that the celebration of the Araw ng Dabaw is intended “primarily to inculcate on the Davao residents a feeling of pride and sense of belonging.”

  It cannot be denied that under the under Lopez administration, the city residents have a lot to be thankful for and be proud of: roads, sewerage system, beautification of the parks and playgrounds, increased revenues, improvement in the public administration, and an enlargement of the image of the city in the eyes of visitors from other places in the Philippines and abroad. And, of course, the fact that Davao City has finally “won” the attention of Malacañang and other government agencies in Manila.

  But turning back to the theme, Tayo ay Dabawenyo in this year’s Araw ng Dabaw. What should be the right spelling of our city – the official and internationally known and accepted name, Davao, or the word, Dabaw, that gave birth to another word, Dabawenyo? And what is a Dabawenyo? Who is a Dabawenyo?

  For the correct answers to the questions, we have to refer to the history of Davao City and its people, their beginnings, customs, cultures, traditions and aspirations apart from and yet strongly intertwined with the rest of the Filipino people’s Do we have that history? Do we have the written biographies of the pioneers, both foreigners and natives, who carved the city out of the jungles, at least, from the time the expedition led by Jose Oyanguren landed here and defeated the valiant forces of Datu Bago?

  Davao is peopled by heterogeneous settlers who have yet to be welded together and integrated into one: Davaoeño. But what is he? Who is he?

  Integrating people with varied and various regional backgrounds and influences will be truly a tedious and tricky task that may not be accomplished in our own time. But let us try to tackle the work now. Let us begin, for example, and for purposes of keeping faith with the known historical identity, by agreeing that our city is Davao, not Dabaw, and we are Davaoeños, not Dabawenyos.

  Then let us give direction and purpose to our celebration, but say, writing our history; establishing a center for our historical cultural, archeological, geological and artistic records, relics and artifacts; and, by boosting our agricultural, commercial and industrial endeavors to show our progress and to project our determination for more progress.

  Finally, let us break down the walls of regionalism and be come one and truly united – then, at last, we can feel the pride and the sense of belonging.

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