Can we implement a Davao policy here?

No bars and other entertainment establishments are allowed to operate after midnight. Police cars are very visible on the streets

Iwas in Davao City over the weekend conducting a refresher seminar about radio news and commentary programming for Radio GMA (RGMA) dxGM Super Radyo Davao personnel. With me were RGMA network officers headed by the president and GMA 7’s 24 Oras news anchor Mike Enriquez, vice president for operations Glenn Allona, vice president for AM operations Susan Perez Aliño and dzBB news manager Norie Temblor.

Most of the reportorial staff and anchors of RGMA Davao station are neophytes in the industry so there is a need to hone their knowledge and skills about broadcasting. It was, indeed, a fruitful exercise.

For two nights, I had a chance to go out together with some station personnel and relatives.

Friday night, I was treated to dinner by my cousins who live in Tugbok district. They brought me to Jack’s Ridge restaurant in Matina, which overlooks the city. The place is nice and beautiful and the food, mostly Filipino dishes, was good and affordable. There was a live band and a videoke. The only problem is that they close early. At around 10 p.m., we were told by the waiters to have our last order and immediately billed us.

Past 10 p.m., we transferred to another karaoke bar but only to be told that they would close at exactly midnight. At around midnight, we were looking for another bar but we couldn’t find one open. We went back to the Marco Polo Hotel, where I was billeted, and ordered beer. But the waiter told us that he could no longer serve us liquor and beverages at the coffee shop. We could only drink in our rooms.

Saturday night, I was brought by my cousins to Matina Town Center, a huge entertainment complex with so many bars, restaurants and barbecue stands and an entertainment stage. Uniformed military men who are members of the Davao Internal Defense Command manned the entrance and occasionally patrolled the complex. Smoking is prohibited in the entire complex. There is a designated smoking area but one has to walk a few meters.

The same experience I had in the previous night. Before midnight, the waiters asked us for our last order as they were closing soon. Fifteen minutes before 12, a team of policemen politely approached and asked customers to leave at exactly midnight or else the authorities would arrest anybody who’d resist. Sus, morag mabitin ko sa inum.

Around midnight, you seldom see people out on the streets walking or roaming. No “tambays.” No bars and other entertainment establishments are allowed to operate after midnight. Police cars are very visible on the streets.

The atmosphere in Davao City during night time is quite different compared to Cebu City. Here, bars are open until the wee hours of the morning. The most “notorious” place is Mango Ave., especially the Mango Square area. Kadlawon na naa pay daghan pang maglaroy-laroy diha.

I was informed that when then mayor Rodrigo Duterte implemented the policy to close bars and entertainment establishments at midnight, there was strong resistance from the business community because it would kill the city’s economy and it deter people from going out at night to enjoy. But since its implementation, criminality at night drastically dropped. Maayo kaha ni i-implementar diri?