Strictly Davao

I’m from Davao City. This place is well known for the Durian fruit, the Philippine Eagle and the Waling-waling orchid. It is well reputed for its cleanliness. It is also known for its notorious mayor, Hon. Rodrigo Duterte. He is no longer the mayor after the last election, he is now the vice mayor while his daughter is the mayor. I guess it is safe to say that nothing really changed.

 I really don’t know how “notorious” Mayor Duterte is and I will not bother to find out. My interest revolves around some city ordinances he introduced which I find… amusing.

The first one is the ordinance that banned the use of pyrotechnics during Christmas and New Year’s eve. At first my family reacted against it. We later realized that we actually benefited from it. My sister, who is a doctor, is now able to join us during these holiday celebrations, and we don’t have problems anymore about cleaning up the mess caused by pyrotechnics the following day.

The other ordinance is the no-smoking policy. I learned about it just before deplaning when the stewardess announced that the Davao is a no-smoking city, which means you can only smoke in private places and some designated public spaces.

Lately, my nephew, who formed a band, told me that there is an ordinance that banned minors from being part of a band. My friend who owns a restaurant also told me that there is a liquor ban at 2am. One time, after midnight, the mayor visited a place which is a popular place for people to hang around for some beer. When he noticed that there were minors around he ordered all the establishments closed, even those establishments that close at 11pm. 

I listen to all of these with a lot of amusement but nothing compares to how the mayor reacted to our parish priest who campaigned against him and his daughter. In some strategic place in our parish he put up billboards that has these words “PIKAT NIMO PETE” (I really don’t know how to translate it in English) and a drawing of an eye. (see photo)

The whole thing reminds me of a book I enjoyed reading: Don Camillo and His Flock. Don Camillo is a parish priest of a small town in Italy, and he is always at odds with the mayor, Peppone, who is a communist. I’m not saying that Duterte is a communist. The story is comical and the conflict between the two characters is very, very amusing.

I think all of these laws are doing the people of Davao a lot of good. The fact that the Dutertes were elected to the mayor and vice mayor position is a sign of the people’s agreement to their policy. I hope everything else goes well.