Crowds are filling San Pedro Street, with churchgoers visiting the nearby San Pedro Cathedral and others exploring the newly painted Davao City Hall. The City Government of Davao will highlight the city’s cultural heritage through a series of activities for National Heritage Month this May.
The Davao City Office for Culture and the Arts (DCOCA), Museo Dabawenyo, and the Film Development Council of the Philippines organized the events under the theme “Roots and Horizon: Our Shared Heritage, Our Collective Future.” Donna Richel Sarong, Museum Researcher I at Museo Dabawenyo, said during a press conference on May 12 that the activities aim to celebrate and preserve Davao City’s heritage.
Calle San Pedro Exhibit
On May 29, Museo Dabawenyo will open the “Calle San Pedro” exhibit on the fifth floor of the National Museum of the Philippines in Davao. “It is a multifaceted exhibition that will focus on telling the story of the city’s primary artery using archival photos, artifacts, and artworks,” Sarong said. The exhibit will feature landmarks surrounding San Pedro Square, including Davao City Hall, the Sangguniang Panlungsod, the Centennial Monument of Peace and Unity, and the San Pedro Cathedral. Visitors will also see archival photographs, artifacts, and artworks related to the area.
Film Screenings and Lectures
Organizers will screen four short videos during the exhibit opening: “Piping Saksi,” a documentary on City Hall; a feature on Jose Mendoza’s Centennial Monument of Peace and Unity; a video on Rachel Holazo’s mural “The Making of a City”; and a feature on the works of Lamberto Acyatan inside the San Pedro Cathedral. Architect John Immanuel J. Palma will deliver a heritage lecture titled “The Architecture of Democracy” during the exhibit opening. “He will talk about the architecture of the City Hall of Davao because our city hall is actually considered a Davao-type. The presidencia, city hall, or municipal hall of other cities or municipalities adopted this architectural design,” Sarong said.
Later that day, DCOCA will hold a film forum on the 1982 movie Himala at the Cinematheque Center Davao. “We will conduct a film forum on folk religion that speaks about the film. We invited Prof. Aya Ragrario from UP Mindanao as our main speaker, and two reactors from Ateneo de Davao’s Anthropology program, and from the Holy Cross’ Institute of Davao Studies,” Oscar Casaysay, head of DCOCA, said. The FDCP Cinematheque Center Davao will also hold a special screening of Himala at 5 p.m. on May 29. “On May 29, it’s a special screening because we’re the only Cinematheque in the Philippines that’s given the right to screen ‘Himala,’” Jose Malabar, project development officer of FDCP Cinematheque Center Davao, said.
Malabar said the screening will happen only once and will be free on a first-come, first-served basis due to limited seating capacity. “The version of the film is the black-and-white copy. This is the scanned version of ‘Himala.’ We’re only given the chance to screen this once by ABS-CBN and the PFA, so I would like to invite everyone to grab this opportunity to watch ‘Himala’ once again here at Cinematheque,” he added.
Davao City’s heritage sites include the Davao City Hall, built in 1926, and the old Davao International Airport designed by Leandro Locsin.
