DAVAO CITY—Consultants consisting of tourism planners and heritage specialists are here, set to craft a master plan creating a tourism traffic for Barangay Mintal.
Pre-war Mintal was considered as Davao City’s Little Tokyo, where the Japanese have settled in and built infrastructures like hospital, schools and cemetery.
Relics from the Japanese have been found in the village as early as the 1900s.
The project has a P120-million budget from the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (Teaza), an attached agency of the Department of Tourism.
Representatives of the consultancy company Berkman International Inc. have been visiting Barangay Mintal’s heritage, historical, cultural and man-made attractions and possible destinations.
“There is a need to have a first-hand knowledge of the typical Mintal tourism experience,” City Tourism chief Regina Rosa Tecson said.
To gather some more information about Mintal, the team of planners on Tuesday initiated a public consultative meeting and workshop.
The activity aimed to collect stories about the village from families who lived in the area before, during, and after the Japanese occupation in the 1940s.
The objective was to trace back history, and identify landmarks that have heritage importance.
Barangay chairmann Ramon Bargamento II has proposed the “revival and rehabilitation of his barangay’s rich historical resources being declared as Japanese Heritage Area in 2009.”
“It started with 20 million, now it has ballooned to 120 million,” Bargamento said.
Meanwhile, the Davao City Planning and Development Office and the Davao City Transport and Traffic Management Office will implement a new traffic scheme starting tomorrow in two major thoroughfares to address road congestion.
The two agencies will implement the ‘experimental loading and unloading segregation scheme’ along Pichon Street (formerly Magallanes Street) and a portion of McArthur Highway.
Engineer Froilan Rigor, speaking for the CPDO, said the experimental scheme will have signages indicating specific areas for predetermined routes, “and we are asking for the public’s cooperation.”
He said the scheme would modify and train the riding habit of the commuters, stressing that largely the riding public affects the attitude of the PUV drivers.
“This is our way of alleviating the traffic issue in the city without spending much. Instead, we should bank on the people’s behavior,” Rigor said.
There will be separate stops for public utility jeepneys and taxis.
Under the scheme, public utility vehicles are required to strictly unload and load passengers from corner Anda Street and Pichon Street, near Grand Menseng Hotel.
The scheme will also be applied in front of NCCC Mall in Matina for PUVs going south and Maa areas.
The scheme grouped PUVs according to routes:
South 1 Group or S1 Routes: Calinan, Tugbok and Mintal
South 2 Group or S2 Routes: Bago, Aplaya, Pangi
Unloading and Loading Area: In front of NCCC Mall
Allied 1 or A1 Routes: Jade Valley, Buhangin via JP Laurel, Bajada
Allied 2 or A1 Routes: Ecoland, Matina Crossing, Talomo, Ma-a, Agdao, Matina Aplaya
Unloading/Loading Area: In front of Grand Menseng Hotel
Maa 1 or M1 Routes: Maa, Magtuod, Langub
Unloading/Loading Area: Beside NCCC Mall, Maa Road
Circulatory 1 or C2 Routes: 01A, Route 01B, Route 05B, Route 09, Route 15
Circulatory 2 or C2 Routes: 02, Route 03A, Route 03B, Route 10
Unloading/Loading area: In front of Magallanes Elementary School.