Mindanao Times

The man behind the ‘Araw ng Dabaw’

- BY VIC N. SUMALINOG

NEXT month, Davao City will be celebratin­g its

83rd founding anniversar­y.

But unlike the previous yearsʼ celebratio­n, this coming Marchʼs commemorat­ion will be hardly attended with pompous activities like the usual parade, the coronation of the Mutya ng Dabaw, concerts, street food fest, sports like the internatio­nal edition of the triathlon, and many others. All these crowd-drawing events are ordered cancelled by city mayor Inday Sara Duterte-Carpio. No thanks to the scare brought about by the onset of the corona virus disease 2019 (CoViD-19) courtesy of Wuhan, China.

Sadly though, a lot of us Dabawenyos have already instilled in our minds that every March of each year we come together to remember our inception as a chartered city 83 years ago. Through the efforts of the late assemblyma­n Romualdo Cauilan Quimpo, Davao City was granted its cityhood status in 1937.

But how many among the younger generation Dabawenyos know that the commemorat­ion of the granting of the Charter of the city did not come until 1968? How many among the so-called millennial­s, and even some of those who were born during the baby boomersʼ era, that the celebratio­n of the ‘Arawʼ was institutio­nalized by a lumad mayor, the late Elias Baguio Lopez, a lawyer by profession? Lopez was the first and possibly the only Bagobo native to occupy the highest elective position of the city.

We feel it worth every Dabawenyoʼ­s while to get a snapshot of the man who initiated the institutio­nalization of the Charter anniversar­y celebratio­n because the annual March event is now very much a part of the history of the city. Knowing why Davao became a city and how we have celebrated its foundation day over the years will surely be an effective guide for us in charting where we should bring the city to, politicall­y and economical­ly.

Yes, educator and historian Gloria P. Dabbay in her book Davao City: Its History and Progress says of the late Elias Lopez as a ‘born leader and tested public servant;ʼ that the late lumad mayor studied his college at the University of the Philippine­s in Diliman, Quezon City, taking up Pre-Law and later Law proper.

As a pre-law student, according to Dabbay in her book, he was elected member of the UP Student Council. In his senior year in Law he was elected President of the UP student government, making him the ‘only one from Mindanao to have been elected to such position since 1908 when UP was establishe­d.ʼ Lopez was also an excellent campus journalist. He was Managing Editor and later Assistant Editor-in-Chief of the UPʼs Philippine Collegian.

Because of Lopezʼs ‘leadership qualities and good scholastic standing,ʼ historian Dabbayʼs book further disclosed that the young lumad who was already a member of the bar, was offered a UP Fellow Scholarshi­p to the University of Michigan in the United States to take up Master in Public Law. But the Bagobo UP scholar turned down the rare opportunit­y. Instead he came home to Davao to run for city councilor where he was twice topnotcher.

According to Dabbay in her book, Lopez moved on to become Vice Mayor and later as a two-term mayor.

Among the Bagobo mayorʼs solid accomplish­ments as the cityʼs chief executive were of course the conceptual­ization and eventual implementa­tion of the housing and shelter project under the Regional Cities Developmen­t Program or RCDP; of course the institutio­nalization of the Araw ng Dabaw celebratio­n; and his having commission­ed the compositio­n of the cityʼs anthem “Tayoʼy Dabawenyo” by musician Guillermo Anajao, with lyrics written by the late Education Director Pedro O. San Vicente.

Moreover, according to Dabbayʼs book, Lopez also initiated the highest award the city is now giving to its outstandin­g citizens, the conferment of which is in time of the annual celebratio­n of the ‘Araw.ʼ It is the cityʼs Datu Bago Award.

And remember the Project HOPE which remains a by-word until these days? Again, it was another Lopez initiative. And who would miss the 7-hectare Magsaysay Park that was reclaimed from the Sta. Ana shoreline? Lopez did it.

At the time of his death Lopez was serving as congressma­n of the cityʼs third district.

But his demise is not likely to put into oblivion his hallmark achievemen­ts that we Dabawenyos celebrate every March of each year, the “Araw ng Dabaw” where the tune of the days as the commemorat­ion progresses is “Tayoʼy Dabawenyo.”

Sadly, this year we might have the most subdued commemorat­ion of the event.

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