By Ayan C. Mellejor
It was an exciting year, full of hopes and finally – victory. This was an election year that put Davao City in the limelight of the national political arena.
The city’s top leader for 23 years, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte finally threw his bid in the presidential race after so many instances of turning down offers to be the standard bearer of Partido Demokratiko Pilipino (PDP)-Laban.
The climb to victory was challenging. He has only Davao City as showcase of his kind of political leadership. But from a poor third in the last of the electoral surveys, Duterte surprisingly pulled off to become President of the Philippines. It was hurting for his intense political opponents but the people have spoken.
Duterte’s victory is Davaoeños and Mindanawons too being the first president coming from the south.
Tourism
Duterte’s victory spiced up the already robust city which for many years never really got national or international attention. This was a city regarded only as just another province of a troubled island. The city was never the apple of the eye to many. But this perception remarkably changed when the mayor became President of the Republic.
The biggest gainer was the tourism industry. The city started receiving many visitors including politicians and jobseekers and hosted national conventions forcing airlines to add flights particularly the Philippine Airlines to cope with increasing number of travelers.
In August, it was noted that the airline industry was doing well and continues to pick up as indicated by the number of flights of the airline companies.
The Manila/Davao route by three carriers had 146 flights one way for a week with total seats offered at 85,960. The Cebu/Davao route by two carriers had 72 flights or a total of 12,356 seats offered.
And single carrier to other routes from Davao-Cagayan de Oro, Davao-Bacolod, Davao-Iloilo, and Davao-Zamboanga with a total of one way flights at 24 or some 3,464 seats offered within the week.
The Xiamen Air made its first flight to Davao City from Xiamen, China in September with 80 Chinese and Filipino-Chinese tourists on board. This marks the beginning of the Xiamen-Davao-Xiamen direct flight to the south.
The Philippines remains one of the top destination choices for Chinese travelers because of the country’s beaches and islands and friendly and hospitable Filipinos. The Chinese are the third largest tourists visiting Davao every year.
The tourism sector took the opportunity to launch a new tour package to know more about the President. From his humble home in Dona Luisa, his fave eatery and his biggest legacy as mayor – the Central 911 have become the most-frequented places.
The September 2 bombing of the Roxas Night Market may have left a black mark of the new administration but that was just a temporary setback. People still keep coming. The night market is again teeming.
Major projects were being pushed to boost tourism and investment climates such as the Davao International Airport, the Davao City – Samal Bridge Project.
Boom City
Investors started to explore Davao City in 2016. In July, the Board of Investments (BOI) noted a sudden rush in the number of businesses wanting to locate in Davao capturing the biggest investment leads in Mindanao valued at P886.7 billion in early part of July. The rush of investors started during the election period, but the surge was more notable after the polls.
Gil Dureza of BOI Mindanao noted that for the month of June alone, Mindanao registered P799.81-billion worth of investments. Of this, Davao City cornered P6.3 billion.
In 2016, the BOI report showed that Mindanao investments leads in January captured P88 billion; February, P9.312 billion; March, P2.07 billion; April, P5.922 billion; and May, P1.645 billion.
“We have not experienced this phenomenon before,” Dureza had confirmed. He said the (President Rodrigo) Duterte factor triggered a lot of interests of the investors to Mindanao and Davao. “Malaking (Big) factor. Duterte projected transformation and that provided a signal to the level of confidence,” Dureza said.
Davao City was also seen to reap the benefits of an improved bilateral relations between the Philippines and China as it would open more opportunities following the visit of President Duterte.
Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte, who also visited Shanghai in China noted how the city is determined to improve the livelihood of the people by welcoming investments that could result in the generation of jobs and economic growth.
He cited Davao’s competitiveness and potentials, particularly on tourism, agriculture, property development, energy, transportation infrastructure, and information and communications technology.
“We hope to partner with the government of China and Shanghai in the realization of our objectives as a developed, progressive, and peaceful city,” he said.
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