(originally published in Otober 2004 on www.mindanews.com)
by Jean Claire Dy
Peñaplata, IGACOS— For a first time visitor here it will be surprising to see that there’s hardly a trace of what people typically expect of an urban city: no shopping malls, no movie theaters, no fastfood restaurants. Peñaplata, the heart of the city, boasts of a small “downtown area” located near the wharf. There one can find a Freedom park, a church, a few stalls selling “ukay-ukay,” one or two carinderias, some sari-sari stores and a fishmarket characterized by an antiquated two-storey wooden structure with apparent Spanish influenced architecture.
Yet after one walk around the center of Peñaplata, it does not take long for one to be taken by the island city’s quaint charm. Lying in the heart of the Davao Gulf, this city is an agricultural and coastal paradise and a home to several indigenous tribes. And it only takes one visit to see that it is a community slowly understanding the past and grappling with the demands of the present.
The Island Garden City of Samal (IGACOS) can be considered a “young” city. Perhaps this is why five years after it became a city, people in the island are still struggling with the concept of “cityhood.”
Ask a tricycle driver what an ordinary day in the Island is, he’d grin and with a shrug say “like this” referring to him sitting on a wooden bench eating merienda in a stall along the road. “There are no other recreation in our place aside from karaoke at night, spending leisure afternoons at the freedom park, and gambling,” he adds. And with a slight smirk comments, “ Mao ni city? This is not yet a city.”
Those who were born and raised in this island recall that when the island became a city, people had mixed reactions. Some expected drastic changes like “more jobs, more buildings built around the place” while others were disappointed and wary that the city would go down the drain.
These perceptions are precisely what City Administrator Cleto Gales said the local government hopes to change. “Behavioral changes don’t happen overnight, but they are possible,” he noted, adding that IGACOS is different from other cities in the country because it is “a garden, an island, and a city.” He further revealed that the LGU has many plans for the city and one of this is to make it an “urban center in a rural setting.”
Written Silences 