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Titles and
Monikers of Davao City |
Orchid Capital of the Philippines
There are beautifully vivid reasons why Davao is
called a “City in Bloom”. Aside from the
presence of vast plantations and garden resorts
that grow rare and exotic orchids and
ornamentals, the City is specifically known
among florists all over the world for its famous
waling-waling, considered as one of the most
beautiful orchids.
The Waling-waling or vanda sanderana grows in
natural abundance in its territory, at the foot
of Mt. Apo. Orchids just love to grow
majestically in the City because of its
typhoon-free weather. Add to that the fact that
the city has more than 1,000 square kilometers
of lush tropical forest (or about 47% of its
total land area) that provided an environment
conducive for rare plants to thrive and
flourish. Another factor is the rich fertile
soil of the city that can virtually make every
wind-blown seed grow and bear fruit even without
the benefit of human intervention. Virtually,
all ingredients are present for Davao City to
blossom and bloom magically like the
waling-waling.
All these factors contributed to the eventual
declaration of Davao City as the official
“Orchid Capital of the Philippines” as declared
by then President Corazon Aquino.
 Fruit Basket of the Philippines- the City of
Durian burg
The freshest tropical fruits are always ripe for
the picking in a City called Fruit Basket of the
Philippines. Whether you’ll go for the juiciest
watermelon, the sweetest mango, the more
succulent pomelo, rambutan, or go subtly fruit
ferocious with banana, mangosteen, lanzones,
strawberry, pineapple, avocado, langka, buko, or
simply settle with a bowl of fresh fruit salad
to end the long list, whatever fibrous or juicy
fruits you have in mind, you’ll definitely have
your fill in Davao City.
Orchards and fruit plantations continually make
the city livable if only for its produce of the
freshest fruits giving visitors a glimpse of
what it would be like in the Garden of Eden with
the exotic Durian (the King of the Fruits or the
Fruit of the Gods) serving as the fruit of good
and evil with its strong aroma (or pungent odor)
overpowered by its heavenly taste which you
would not want to exchange for anything. Come to
the City of Durianburg and partake of the
glorious delights of fruits made in the heavenly
realms.
Home of the Great Bird of Asia –Soaring high
in the new millennium
No one in the early 80’s would have thought that
Davao, like its symbol and icon- the Philippine
eagle, would soar to new heights in the new
millennium.
No one ever thought too that the mighty
Philippine Eagle (pithecophaga jefferyi)
considered as the 2nd largest eagle in the world
and threaten for extinction as early as the
70’s, would have survived the onslaught of
denudation and other factors that continually
threaten its natural habitat – the forest.
Thanks mainly to joint efforts of concern
government and non-government organizations,
captive breeding of this great bird of Asia has
resulted to the birth of more than a dozen
eagles (hatched in captivity) and we have
welcomed the new millennium with them still
lording the skies over the forest and vegetation
around Mt. Apo.
The Philippine Eagle is a faithful mate. It has
been observed that this bird usually prefers a
monogamous lifestyle. It usually builds its nest
on towering tropical trees about 80 feet above
the ground (sufficient enough for it to have a
good view over its territory).
Philippine Eagles breed between August and
January, do aerial courtships and mate in or
near their nest. The female lays one egg every
two years and both parents alternately incubate
the egg for about 60 days until it hatches. The
eaglet fledges within 150 days and becomes
independent at 18 months at which time the
parents drive it out of their 60 to 100
kilometer radius territories.
With its habitat dwindling due to illegal
logging, the Philippine Eagle Foundation, Inc.
was organized in 1987 to implement programs such
as captive breeding management, field research,
community-based enterprise development, and
conservation education.
Convention Center of the Philippine South
With more convention and exhibition centers
being established that have complemented other
excellent tourism facilities, Davao City has
steadily positioned itself as the Convention
Center of the Philippine South in the 21st
century.
Since 1990, it has steadily become the preferred
destination for conventions and conferences.
This could be attributed to the ever changing
and ever improving economic and tourism
landscape of the city, which attracted
organizers to conduct major conventions here
instead of proverbial settings like Manila or
Cebu. 
Modern, sophisticated, and state-of-the-art
facilities and equipment for conventions and
conferences are now readily available. This is
equally complemented by the establishment of new
first class hotels and mountain resorts bringing
the number of hotel rooms from around 500 in
1980 to over 2,500 in 1999. Yet, the demand for
more hotel rooms is projected to increase now
that the City has more tourism products,
services, and facilities to offer.
Gateway to the East ASEAN
Davao City, the birthplace of the East ASEAN
Growth Area (or EAGA), is also your gateway to
this emerging polygon of power. The EAGA was
formed mainly because the areas that comprised
it (Mindanao and Palawan for the Philippines,
Brunei, Manado and North Sulawesi of Indonesia,
and Sabah for Malaysia) used to be a trading
bloc during the 12th century up to the 15th
century where people enjoyed borderless
economies with barter trading as the most common
economic practice. Centuries of colonialism,
imperialism and the establishment of governments
within the chain of islands halted the
exchanges.
In 1994, government representatives and
businessmen from these areas have gathered
together in Davao City for the biggest
convention ever held in the region to formally
signal the birth of the newest trading bloc in
Asia, the BIMP-EAGA. In the heart of this
formation is Davao City, which paved the way for
the re-establishment of cooperation between the
Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia to
advance the free movement of people, goods,
services, and improve cultural and economic ties
within the said sub-regional trade bloc.
Through these developments, direct air and sea
linkages to the islands have been established
making Davao City your gateway to the East ASEAN
growth area. |
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