In recent years, Davao has transpired as the business investment and tourism core for the entire southern Philippines. The city brags some of the optimum beaches and mountain resorts in the country, and proximity to the Philippines’ most captivating diving spots as well as its highest peak, Mount Apo.
Davao City History
Regional historians claimed that the word davao originated from the phonetic combination of the word of three Bagobo subgroups when referring to Davao River, a significant watercourse which drains itself into Davao Gulf near the city. The indigenous Obos who dwells in the hinterlands of the region called the river, Davoh; the Clatta or Guiangans called it Duhwow, or Davau, and the Tagabawa Bagobos, Dabu. To the Obos, the word davoh also means a place "beyond the high grounds", alluding to the community situated at the doorway of Davao River which were surrounded by high rolling hills. When asked where they were going, the usual reply is davoh, while pointing towards the direction of the town. Duhwow also refers to a trading village where they switch their forest merchandise in exchange for salt and other commodities.
Spanish authority was scarcely experienced in the Davao until 1848, when a mission directed by Don Jose Uyanguren came to build a Christian colony in the region of mangrove swamps that is now Bolton Riverside. Davao was then ruled by a Muslim chieftain, Datu Bago, who held his settlement at the banks of Davao River (once called Tagloc River by the Bagobos). After Uyanguren defeated Datu Bago, he renamed the region Nueva Guipúzcoa, in honor of his home in Spain, and became its first governor. Uyanguren's attempts to expand the area, however, did not prosper.
A few years following the American forces landed in 1900, private farm possession grew and transportation and communication facilities were enhanced, thus paving the way for the region's economic development.
A Japanese capitalist named Kichisaburo Ohta was given authority to develop enormous land which he converted into abacá and coconut plantations. The first wave of Japanese plantation workers came onto its shores in 1903, creating a Little Japan. They had their own school, newspapers, an embassy, and even a Shinto Shrine. On the whole, they established wide abaca plantations around the shores of Davao Gulf and developed large-scale commercial interests such as copra, timber, fishing and import-export trading. Filipinos learned the techniques of enhanced cultivation from the Japanese so that ultimately, agriculture became the living of the province's economic prosperity.
Davao was officially inaugurated as a chartered city on March 1, 1937 by President Manuel L. Quezon. Thirty years later, Davao was subdivided into three self-governing provinces, namely Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, and Davao Oriental. Over the years, Davao has turn an ethnic melting pot as it continues to pull out migrants from all over the country, lured by the possibilities of striking it rich in the country's third largest city.
On December 8, 1941 Japanese planes bombed the city. Japanese occupation started in 1942. In 1945, American and the Philippine Commonwealth forces released Davao City from Japanese forces.
Durian, coconut, lanzones, mango, pomelo, papaya, mangosteen, banana, pineapple
